Teddy bears and Demon eyes
by HazelFireSky
Summary: An eleven year old who can see demons? That's gotta give a kid some nightmares, but Heather Cutlass is all too familiar with the faces of demons. However, in this world, are demons really the monsters? Or are the monsters us? (Original Character Independent Story)
1. Teddy bears (Pilot)

**Opening Notes: **Hello there, before we start the story I should give a little output on the story ahead since many of you may not be interested in this. Since I am at the end of season 4 right now, I may have some facts messed up in this story and please do not hesitate to correct me if I do have mistakes. This is a story mainly circles around a young girl and the embodiment of a teddy bear, who goes by the names Heather and Muds. This story is focused on their downfall into the hunting community and will be starring some canons characters. Though this does border Supernatural's series plot, and will be effected by the events in the show, this story will have plenty drama of its own. Occasionally I will hint things that happened in the actual series to give you an idea of what season, or episode, the time of events surround.

**Warning:** This story warps and adds in events. The action in the story will (probably) start off in chapter 3 or 4

(the story pretty much starts off a few days after Sam and Dean have that run in with the "Ghostfacers" in that haunted house, the end of season 3)

**tagteamduo . tumblr .com (no spaces) **** -check this out**

* * *

_Teddy bears_

* * *

_**April 25th, 2008**_

**Brooklyn Center, Minnesota**

There had been a murder recently.

Not just a 'simple neck slice' murder, but a brutal one. The victim of the murder was a middle aged man who lived alone, and when he was attacked he had attempted a 911 call, but was killed before he could finish requesting help. The man's right eye had been gouged out, his right hand mauled and his chest was split open, but there were no fingerprints. No knocked over furniture, no door had been kicked down or picked, the street camera outside hadn't seen anyone strange entering the house. The murder left policemen puzzled and they ended up searching many of the neighboring houses.

_Knock Knock Knock_

"Hello, this is the FBI. Please open up."

10-year-old Heather nearly tripped down the stairs from her room as she raced to look out the living room window and see who was at the door. Her light brown curly hair bounced up and down as she jumped onto the couch and peaked outside. In front of the house was two men in suits. One of them had really long brown hair while the other man's hair was short and spiked up in a style.

"Heather, who's at the door?" Her mother's voice rang from the kitchen.

"Some men in suits, Mom." Heather called back, dark brown eyes still trained on the two men. One of the men saw her, the long-haired one, and gave a small smile. Heather didn't smile back, just watched as her mother opened the door to talk to them.

Though it probably would've gone unnoticed by the men outside, Heather was holding a brown dog teddy bear in her hands. She unconsciously squeezed her teddy bear when her mother's light brown face had gone from inviting to angry. The women looked to the left of her, probably at the crime scene that lay just beside their own home. While the short brown-haired man continued to talk to the, now angry and confused, women, the long-haired man was still glancing at Heather's curious gaze.

Bringing her teddy bear up into the window view so it may be seen, Heather made the brown stuffed animal wave at the long-haired man and, in return, got another smile out of him.

**_slam_**

"How can they even accuse anyone of doing something like that." Her mother growled as she slammed the door in the men's faces, whipping around to stalk back into the kitchen "People in this neighborhood wouldn't dream of doing something so cannibalistic."

Heather had barely looked at her mom and watched as the two men irritably descended from the front of her house to a car that was waiting just outside her driveway. When they got into the car, the short brown-haired man appeared to be angrily rambling on about something which the long-haired man completely ignored as he continued to stare at the girl watching them from the window.

Finally, the short brown-haired man turned to see what his companion was looking at, but as soon as he looked in her direction, Heather ducked out of sight.

When she rose back up, the short-haired man was looking away with disinterest, but the long-haired man continued to stare at the window. He waved a small goodbye to her as they began rolling away in the car.

As soon as they had left from the front of her driveway, Heather turned and dashed back up the stairs. She turned to walk down a long hallway and entered a brightly colored room at the end of it. Inside the room the walls were light pastel colors and sunlight flooded the small proximity, pictures of pretty women torn from magazines were put up on the wall and crayon colored drawings were put up there as well. Heather, however, ignored these pictures and sat down on her bed with a stern face. Her gaze was appointed to the far wall and she seemed to be in deep concentration before sighing "Why did you kill him?"

The question had no one to reply to as the small light brown-skinned girl sat in her room alone with her teddy bear dangling from her grip.

"Why did you kill him, Muds?" She repeated, but this time looked down to the brown stuffed dog in her hands. Yet, silence was still her only reply.

Suddenly, the air seemed to shift and the teddy bear in her hands glowed a bright white. The TV in the corner of her room switched on and filled with static as the bright light slowly sunk off teddy bear and pool onto the floor. From the pooling white light, a figure began to appear. It was slightly transparent and looked to be way older than the girl sitting on the bed, who was watching the forming figure with interest.

A brown messy haired man appeared. Dressed in a white button down shirt. He had on some baggy gray pants and a pair of black combat books, and a two large white wings were tucked neatly behind his back. His soulful dark brown eyes gazed down at the younger girl below him. "Heather." He breathed, his transparency melting away into solidness, "I told you I had to do it. After yesterday, that was no longer the neighbor you knew. He was going to hurt you. I had to kill him."

Heather scoffed, her own brown eyes looking down at the floor "I knew something was wrong...his face was...different yesterday. It scared me."

"Well everything is just fine now. I'm here to protect you." The embodiment reassured, taking a seat onto Heather's bed and listening to it groan underneath his weight "I will always protect you."

"Okay, Muds."

* * *

"I'm telling you, Dean, that girl was staring at me the whole time."

"I didn't see no damn girl, Sam. I was too busy being yelled at by an angry women to even think about anything else."

The long-haired man sent a sideways stare at his brother, Dean, who simply snorted at him before continuing talking "So, you have any theories yet?"

"Well. I thought it was a Werewolf at first, but we heard from other policemen that the heart was still in its chest. This kinda leaves us with a wide opportunity of monsters: Vampires, Demons, possibly Hellhounds." Sam sent another sideways stare at his brother, who didn't meet his eye. "Dean?"

"Sam, I swear to god if you bring up anything about Hellhounds I will pull over and push you out of this vehicle. Do you have anymore theories?"

"I can't think of any right now. We don't have enough clues." Sam replied, still staring at his brother with a skeptical look.

"Well then. I think we should go check out the house later tonight, okay."

"Whatever. Let's just go get something to eat." The long-haired male sighed, looking away from his brother to lean onto the car door and stare out of the window.

* * *

**Few hours later**

"Mom! Mom! Is dinner ready!?"

Heather sat on the couch, most of her attention drawn towards the TV as she called out for her mother. It was mostly playing reruns on the News about her next door neighbors death and what would've caused it. Everytime her neighbor's face flashed onto the TV screen Heather ended up flinching away and pulling her teddy bear closer to her.

"We're having pizza, Heather, is that okay?" Her mother's voice called back to her in reply, and the dark curly-haired girl turned from the television to look into the kitchen.

"Yeah." She muttered, not loud enough for mother to hear. The girl was curled up on the couch, her feet tucked towards herself as she tried her best not to wrinkle up her white pajama dress. Muds, her dog teddy bear, sat limply in her lap with it's giant stuffed head turned towards the ongoing News story.

_"Heather..." _

A voice lifted into the surrounding area, filling it with a slight ringing sound as it attempted to communicate with the young curly-haired female.

"What?"

_"The men...they're back..." _

Heather glanced down at the teddy bear, confusion flooding her gaze as she mumbled "The men from this morning?"

_"Yes...They're going to the crime scene across the street. I will go follow and smite them if they are dangerous. _

"Hey! Don't hurt the one long-haired one." Heather cried out desperately as the light glow began to seep off of her teddy bear and onto the floor, disappearing underneath one of the living room walls.

"Heather!?" Her mother's sudden cry of urgency came from the living room's entrance way as the women suddenly appeared there. "Who are you talking to?" the dark-skinned women asked.

The younger female barely glanced at her mother, her dark brown eyes still watching where the glowing light had disappeared from. When her mom asked the question over again, Heather finally turned and nonchalantly told her that she was speaking to Muds, her teddy bear. At that, her mother scrunched up her nose and criticized her about still being so attached to a teddy bear.

"It's just a phase." The older female sighed, worriedly running a hand through her thickly curled hair. "Come on, the pizza is done."

"Alright." Heather sighed, carefully placing the dog teddy bear onto the couch and following her mom into the kitchen.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sam and Dean weren't having much trouble getting inside the house since the door was left unlocked.

The only sign of police activity was the yellow tape that surrounded the area. As they entered the house, the feeling of being watched instantly passed over the two and pricked them with cautiousness.

"Dean. It feels strange here." Sam whispered, checking the area for any ghost or spirits on the EMF meter. Dean went along with checking for any sulfur, but both ended up empty handed.

Suddenly, the lamp ,sitting on the table behind them, crashed onto the ground and sent glass scattering everywhere. Sam flinched at the sudden crash, whipping around to point his flashlight at the shattered remains while Dean pulled out his demon knife and steeled himself for what might leap out. However, all they got was silence in reply.

_"Friend or Foe?" _

The wind had picked up suddenly, sweeping through the house so violently it rattled the pictures on the walls and made the windows shake. The voice had seemingly came from nowhere, echoing though the emptied house and having no source to claim it. Sam looked around, slightly nervous by the sudden change in the behavior of their surroundings.

"What does it matter!?" Dean shouted out, most likely that it was directed to the voice "Show yourself!"

_"Friend or Foe? I will not ask again!" _

The voice once more swept through the house, this time sharpened with threat. Dean's eyes narrowed, whipping around to find the source of the voice.

"Dean, wait. Don't agitate it." Sam spoke to his brother, placing a hand onto the shorter man's shoulder. Sending the taller male a skeptical glance, Dean backed down while the talking was transferred to the gentler brother.

"We are friend." Same spoke out "Are you a spirit?"

_"No...Why are you here?" _

"We're searching for a killer. We're searching for who killed the man that lived here."

No response came this time, and the wind, that had whistled through the house, died down. At this action, Dean moved forward to speak, but stopped as a white light slowly began to descend from one of the walls. It stopped in front of them, forming the figure of a 29-year-old man as Dean raised his gun to shoot.

"Don't." Sam warned, holding out his arm.

When the figure had finally stopped forming and the light died down, it revealed a man. The Winchester brothers labeled him as a spirit immediately because of his transparency, and Dean slowly began to move over to the fireplace to grab the iron fire-sticker lying there.

"The thing that lived here was ,surely, not a man. It was a monster, disguised in human flesh so that it may walk among the living and wreck as much havoc as it please." Dean paused as the shaggy haired man told his story, glancing over at Sam before continuing to shuffle his way over to the fireplace "I could've cared less about what it may do, but when it decided to target a young girl I know, I jumped into offense and smited the wretched beast."

"Beast? Can you clarify?" Sam pressed, hoping to draw his attention from Dean.

"A Demon."

There was a pause, both Winchester boys trying to register why this 'spirit' would want to take down a demon, but they weren't able to linger on the thought for too long as Dean snapped out of it and grabbed the iron firepicker. Swinging it at the man, he was surprised to find that the shaggy haired man could catch the firepicker before it hit laid any damage on him.

"Have I not made myself clear?" The man spat, flinging the iron away and spreading out his white wings to make himself look intimidating "I. Am. Not. A. Spirit."

"Then what are you?" Dean asked as Sam took a step back so he wouldn't be hit by the wings.

"An embodiment." The man spat again, eyes narrowing on the short-haired man.

Dean opened his mouth to speak again, but this time the man was consumed in a bright white and pooled onto the floor. Just as fast as it happened, the light was snuffed out, and the man was gone.

"What was that?" The older brother turned to the younger brother for clarifying, he obviously not catching onto anything that the man had said.

"Apparently...he's an embodiment." Sam breathed.

"Of what?"

"I don't know"

"Alright...Let's go back to the motel then."

* * *

Back at the house, Heather's mom had decided to go to sleep early, leaving Heather to eat alone at the dining table. The girl would've found the task boring if it weren't for the sudden glow that appeared in the seat next to her.

"Muds." Heather whispered happily as the white-winged man formed. His hair was tussled now, and he held a look of irritation in his eyes, but he sent the young girl a reassuring smile "As far as I am concerned, they are no danger, Heather."

"Cool. I wanna talk to the long haired guy. I really like his hair." The girl chuckled, her feet leisurely swinging as she sat in her chair. Muds chuckled along with her, his voice sending a short of comfort into the air "I'm very certain that you will talk to them soon. They may be over here to inspect, again."

"Oh! yay." She cheered in reply, which was cut short as her mom yelled at her from upstairs to 'go to sleep' and 'to keep it down.'

Heather glanced over at Muds, who simply rolled his eyes in annoyance and pooled into a white light on the floor. Following the child back to the living room, the white light poured into the teddy bear as the 10 year old girl swooped up the bear, turned off the TV, and climb the stairs in order to get to her room. The house was quiet enough for her to hear her own footsteps as she walked down the hall and turned into her room.

Carefully setting Muds down onto the bed, she flicked on the night light then climbed under the covers.

_"There is no reason to be afraid of the dark, Heather."_

Muds' lulling voice whispered in her head. The female never replied, only pulled the teddy bear closer to her body and deeply sighed, falling into slumber

* * *

**The next day **

It was pretty much gloomy outside the next day, rain clouds threatening to spill its load onto the people below. Heather was oblivious to the weather, however, as she sat outside in the driveway drawing with chalk. Her mother had gone out grocery shopping and the neighborhood they lived in was a nice neighborhood (you know except the murder, but Heather already knew who did that). Muds lay limply beside her, head trained on the multicolored butterfly she was drawing. Multiple swirls and dots surrounded the area. A couple of drawn bees were scattered here and there.

_"Visitors, Heather."_

She pretty much heard the car pull up before she heard Muds warning voice and when she looked up she saw a very familiar car. It wasn't her mother's car, however.

"Hello, little girl. Is your mother home?"

Heather found herself staring into the face of someone she hadn't really expected. She nearly leaped out of her skin as the retched face of a demon flashed underneath the skin on this man's flesh. Scrambling onto her feet and grabbing her teddy bear, she started to back away to the house. The man in front of her was dressed in a business suit, and had dull hazel eyes and age lines on his forehead. His black hair was combed backwards, flecks of gray hair barely showing.

_"Whats wrong, Heather?"_

The worried voice rang in her head as she continued to back away, unable to do much, but try and keep her distance from the unholy creature.

"D-Demon..." She whispered.

At the mention of his species, the man hesitated. He seemed shocked that she was able to identify him, but that was replaced with a smug grin. Before he could lunge at her, Muds' human form flashed forward from the light puddle that had lingered on the ground. The demon reeled back in surprise, nearly falling onto its back as the larger man gripped its neck and slammed it onto the ground.

Muds' actions only seem to make it's smile wider as it started to sneer at the protective embodiment.

"Do you think you can kill me?" It spat at him, thrashing underneath his choking grasp. "Insole-"

Before he could continue, the vest wearing male plunged his fingertips into the man's neck. White flashed underneath his hand where his fingertips sunk in and the demon ceased its thrashing, staring at him as if** he** was the monster.

"W-What are you..." The demon breathed, now fearing for the unknown.

With a simple yank, Muds' ripped a large hole into the demon's neck. It was strange, as any demon could escape from its host if it pleased, but the demon seemed to have been chained to the meatsuit it was possessing. Instead, it flailed hopelessly while choking on its own blood until it finally stilled. The face of the demon's host flashed red underneath its skin, and then the body was still.

"Thanks Muds." Heather huffed, looking at the dead man with saddened eyes.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" The sudden yell of voices sent the duo on edge, but they relaxed when they only saw the real visitors they were expecting.

Dean was running straight towards the two, Sam following close behind. They stared at the body with an unsure look then turned to the tag team staring back at them

"Get inside." Dean ordered them, herding them back into the house. Once they were inside and the door was locked, the four of them sat down at the dinner table and, for the most point, sent long looks at each other. Dean was the first to speak up.

"Explain to me why you just killed a man." his question was more direction to vest wearing guy who sent hard stares at the brothers.

"He was a demon. He intended harm."

"How did you know that?" It was Sam who now asked a question.

"I told him!" Then Heather spoke.

After that no one said anything. The Winchester brothers looked at the young girl as if she was crazy, then turned to the male who was towering over her in a protective way as he nodded slowly.

"That's...wow...how?" Sam muttered a flurry of responses, not quite sure how to react to the sudden information. It was near impossible that a person would be able to see the true face of a demon.

No,It wasn't **near** impossible. It was impossible!

"How do have that ability?" Sam gushed, fixing Heather with an unsettling gaze. The young girl glanced up at Muds then back at the long-haired man, opening her mouth to sigh before shrugging. Muds sighed too, but instead of shrugging like Heather had done, he began to talk "It was a near death accident that caused Heather to be like this. It happened when she was 6, a couple of months before she had found me in a garage, Heather ate something toxic. At the hospital, they rushed her into surgery, and...as far as I know, she died in surgery. The story is still fuzzy to me as I wasn't there when she was at the hospital, but from my guess...they somehow brought her back to life."

"And you think this is somehow the cause to her ability to see demons?" Dean wondered.

"Maybe..."

Just then a women walked into the room. Grocery bags were in her hands, and she looked like she had just went through hell. She noticed the three strange men in her kitchen instantly, and set the grocery bags down rather roughly before whipping around to shout at them at the top of her lungs. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO DOING IN HERE WITH MY DAUGHTER! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE BEFORE I CALL THE FUCKING POLICE!"

Heather cowered away from the yelling and her mother outstretched to grab the kitchen knife from the counter.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Miss please put down the blade, we're not here to hurt your child. You are in danger." Sam tried to reason with the women.

"DON'T FUCKING CALL ME MISS! GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HOUSE. NOW!"

"Lady. Please can you calm down. We are not trying to hurt you." Dean attempted to reason too, but the mother ended up trying to stab them with the knife. She headed over to Heather and grabbed onto her arm, yanking her daughter over to her side. To everyone's surprise, Heather wrenched herself out of her mother's grasp and sprinted over to Dean, who looked at the girl as if she was crazy.

"That's not my mom." Heather whispered, glancing at Dean.

The short haired male pressed his lips together in a thin line, pulling a flask that was from his back pocket and unscrewing it.

"Miss. Would you please calm down?" Sam continued, not realizing that this was not a human.

Dean hurled the liquid from his flask onto the women, and, on contact, her skin started sizzling. It then clicked in everyone's mind what this creature actually was. The women was flailing, rubbing her hands across her skin in order to get rid of the holy water that was burning her. Muds was close to jumping into action, but he hesitated when he realized that this wasn't just some demon possessing a **random **body.

This was Heather's mom.

"Take her out of here." Dean directed Muds, gesturing to the 10-year-old who was frantically grabbing onto his pants leg. "Go outside and wait there. Do not come back in no matter what."

The embodiment huffed, bracing himself to argue with Dean, but when the demon started laughing and its eyes flicked black, the shaggy haired man made a dive for the girl.

"I don't think so!" The demon hissed at his actions, using its telepathic strength to throw the man off of his course and onto the kitchen counter. It did the same with the Winchester brothers, leaving the 10-year-old unguarded and vulnerable. She was clenching her teddy bear pretty hard now, and barely noticed the faint glow of light as Muds returned to the object.

"You're pretty special, aren't ya, kid?" The demon chuckled, giving the girl a toothy grin.

In Heather's perspective everything just seemed completely wrong as the demon's face was overlayed by her mother's flesh. It conflicted her and she could not find the will to move as the demon moved to pick her up. The yells from the long haired man, and his brother were background noise compared to the beating of her own heart.

As the familiar arms reached out to grab her, Heather stared at the hideous demon face that was hidden to everyone except her.

Instinctively, she kicked the demon right in the shin.

Now this would've done little damage in hindsight, but the demon pulled back to hiss at the stinging pain that erupted from the kick. It lurched forward the snatch her up again, but the blast of light that burst through the teddy bear made it hesitate once more. Muds leaped out and pinned it down, causing it to drop its telepathic hold on Sam and Dean.

"Go on, kill me!" The demon growled at the man who towered above it "If I go, the lady goes with me."

Muds faltered "What?...WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

The demon didn't reply to the embodiment, only smiled in his face as he shook it angrily and yelled at it. Dean and Sam exchanged glances, then looked to the girl who was cowering in the back of the room and looking at the demon with a horrified face. Dean turned to Muds, who glanced back at the man with an unsure look.

Sam made his way to girl, heaving her up in his arms and carrying her away to the car outside.

This left Dean and Muds with the situation of coming up with what to do with the Demon, knowing that the outcome wouldn't change no matter what they did. Dean agreed to draw a demon trap on the kitchen floor with the markers in the house and when they had thrown the demon into the trap, Muds went outside to switch places with Sam so that he could exorcise the creature.

Inside the car, Heather was raking her young brain with all sorts of unanswerable questions.

When she had looked at the demon, she had expected at least a glimpse of her mother's face to be there, but she had saw nothing, but the hideous face of the spawn of Satan. She was still trembling about the thought when Muds came to replace Sam, and the long-haired man trekked his way towards the house.

Silence engulfed the two, one of them staring out the window in a nervous manner and the other sitting and squeezing the teddy bear in its arms feverishly. Rain had begun to pour from the clouds, soft at first, but then it got stronger and soon a storm had opened up. However, it didn't change the suffocating silence from inside the car

"Heather..." A warm voice blurted out, eager to stop the choking silence. The quiet young girl glance up at her companion with a scared face, her brown eyes glittering with tears. The shaggy haired male stared back at the little female, refusing to speak at first in fear that he would be the one to spill those tears.

"You've got to be strong, Heather." Was all that the older male said, melting into the teddy bear that was being constricted in her arms.

_"From now on...You've **got** to be strong. Because, from now on...things aren't gonna be quite the same..."_

* * *

**Help. **

**I've fallen into the supernatural fandom and I can't get up. **

**/whispers/ this chapter is kinda half-assed...I am sorry. **

**So far, I am only up to the school episode in season 4 so I have a long way to go so I may keep up with the plot of the show. Future chapters of this story will contain plenty of bonding between these two characters Muds and Heather, backgrounds revealed, canon appearances, and mini plot development. I will also clear up a few things about the characters next chapter. For example, why Muds has wings.**

_**Please feel free to leave a review behind. I don't even care if you're just criticizing the story, please give me some feedback.**_

**Until then, Hazel out  
**


	2. Demon eyes (Pilot)

**More clarification.**

**I'm sorry if Dean or Sam are a bit out of character. I tend to have trouble pinpointing personalities.**

* * *

_Demon eyes_

* * *

"You mind explaining where we're going?!" Muds shouted towards the drive of the black Impala they were currently in. The embodiment had managed to keep his cool when the brother's had returned to the car with their hands covered in blood and smelling like fire. The shaggy haired male already knew what had to be done, but when the brothers had started driving without letting the duo get out the car, he got a bit aggressive.

The short haired driver didn't turn his head from the road, but instead increased the speed of the car, earning a concern look from his brother in the seat beside him.

"Away. From this place." Dean finally replied, only glancing at the long haired man beside him.

"Why? Where do you think you're taking us?!" Muds shouted again, hands gripping onto the driver's seat as he sent angry stares at both of the brothers.

"You both are in danger. You also have a child with you, and I'm not risking anything happening to her." Dean growled in response to the embodiment's tone of voice, ignoring the daggers that were being glared into the back of his head.

"Oh Okay. Thank you for the concern, _Dean_" The shaggy haired man hissed the hunter's name, dark brown eyes narrowing ",but what do you plan on doing with _us_? We can't just tag along with you on your little adventures. Like you said, there is a child with me."

Sam glanced at his brother, eyebrow's furrowed in thought as his dark green eyes flashed with uncertainty. Dean, however, didn't meet his brother's gaze and instead huffed "We will figure that out at the motel."

The young girl in question sat quietly in the car, her gaze flickering between the three adults. She couldn't quite place the feeling, but there were weird vibes coming off of the two males in the front seats. One of the vibes appeared to be almost deathly, as if death was hovering along the car ceiling, while the other vibe was harder to understand.

Finally, the young girl decided to speak up "Where's my mother?" she asked.

At the question, the car was flooded with silence. Both of the brother's gazes were appointed towards the road they were on and the male embodiment beside her shifted awkwardly, turning his gaze to the window. Heather's brows furrowed, and a frown carved itself onto her youthful face. She opened her mouth to speak again, but Sam shifted in the front seat to turn to her.

"She had to go somewhere, Heather." The man reassured after he had stared for a while, nodding as the little girl's features went from worried to understanding.

"Will I be able to see her?" She asked, unconsciously squeezing the teddy bear in her arms.

"One day." Sam responded, turning around to face forward "One day, you'll see her again. Just not today."

Heather nodded her head in understanding, spluttering out "I can't wait for that day."

The brother's exchanged knowing gazes, while Muds shifted in the backseat to look at the young girl with a worried look. Honestly, Heather had no idea how much hidden context she had just said, as she just wanted to see her mother's loving face again, but all she could remember was the horrifying face of a demon.

* * *

**30 minutes later...**

"Wait...Wait...Wait. So you're telling me, what now?" Muds hissed, sitting on the floor of the dusty motel they had entered. The walls looked like someone had just came into the room and dumped dirt all over them and the beds were already messy. The floor was no better as little bugs occasionally scattered past. Heather had been directed to stay on the bed in fear of one of the bugs making her sick. Dean and Sam were sitting on the other bed, both looking unsure as to what they just proposed.

"We're saying that, we could possibly...teach you a few things..." Sam repeated himself, still looking unsure.

"About what? How to kill demons!?" Muds shouted, arms throwing up in empathizes and his wings opening up a bit more to make himself seem larger "I know how to kill demons just fine, thank you."

"Listen." Dean growled, eyes narrowing on Muds "This is not about you. This is about keeping that girl safe. If this was about you, I'd let you go off on your own in a heartbeat. You guys aren't exactly a normal duo and with the girl over there able to see demons, even though I'm still skeptical of believing that, she will be in danger. You two, most likely, will be pinpointed by demons and tried to be killed seeing that you guys both have weird abilities."

Heather wasn't listening to the conversation. She was busy playing with the teddy bear in her hands, flailing its paws around and chuckling at the words she made it say. Muds glanced at her, his eyebrows lifted in worried thought before turning back to the brothers. "So...What? You guys teach us how to protect ourselves from this thing, what then? We continue running? I can't exactly bring her everywhere with me claiming that she is my...daughter or something."

Sam traded a look with Dean then turned to the curly haired girl that was oblivious to the conversation that was going on.

"How about you start off with the small things..." Sam started "Get a driver's license. Buy a car. Adopt Heather. Get an ID."

"Excuse me? I can't afford a car and these things take time-" Muds started off his sentence with growling, but was interrupted by Dean as he threw his hands up in anger.

"Can you actually_ think_ instead of running your mouth, pal?" The short haired man hissed "We can show you how to protect yourself until you get these things set up. Get an ID, Adopt Heather and then get a driver license before you think about getting a car." he then glanced over at Sam "I'm pretty sure we have a friend who could help you out with that car problem anyway."

The embodiment huffed, face twisted into a look of uncertainty towards the brothers. He glanced once more at Heather, who was still playing with the teddy bear leisurely.

"Alright. What do you have to show me?" Muds sighed.

The next few hours flew by pretty quickly. Heather didn't do much, as she wouldn't remember a lot of things that they taught Muds, but Sam drew a demon trap on a piece of paper and told her to keep on drawing the demon trap until she memorized the design. They had taught Muds how to make holy water, how to draw a demon trap, and they told him to keep practicing the exorcism spell until he memorized it.

"You were gifted with the ability to kill a demon." Sam told the embodiment "There are not a lot of weapons made to kill them. As far as we know, you can only exorcise them and send them back to hell. Exorcising the demon saves the person that they are using, but if you use _your_ method, you kill the person as well."

Muds snorted, almost as if he didn't care, but didn't speak.

They had given the man the written version of the exorcism spell just in case he forgot it, and the embodiment pocketed it.

"Hey," Dean called, sitting on the bed across from Heather while tossing a weird looking knife back and forth "Why do you have wings? Like, what's the point in them?"

"I wasn't the one to come up with the idea for wings." Muds told him, glancing warily at the knife in the green eyed man hands "Like I said before, I am an embodiment. I originally never had a form to take, Heather's the one to come up with my design. Ask her why I have these useless appendages. I can't even use them to fly."

"Wait...how was she able to that? Are you guys linked, or something?" Dean pressed.

"In a way, yes. However, I choose not to talk about how I became linked to her." Muds snorted, turning away from the brothers to look at Heather while tucking his wings into himself. As soon as the wings were tucked away, they seemed to disappear into thin air. Dean also looked at the young girl across from him, who didn't look to be drawing the demon trap symbol anymore. Instead, she was furiously coloring in the paper with the pencil in her hand.

Dean then turned back at the embodiment, eyebrows pressed together in thought "You're an embodiment. So, you need some type of thing to embody from..." his words slowed down as he tried to piece together his thoughts "What exactly are you embodying?"

Muds sighed, leaning his head onto his hand as he continued to watch Heather scribble "Heather's teddy bear. It was my original form that I took, and I use it as a safe place so that I may hide or escape when I need to. The teddy bear is also the thing that bound our souls together."

Dean frowned, his eyebrows furrowing in more confusion "Wait. Teddy bears don't have souls. How did you have a soul if you came from that teddy bear?"

The embodiment sighed again, his face screwing up into a scowl "I am not explaining my backstory to _you_." he huffed, finally turning away from the young girl to face the Winchester brother. "_You_ do **not** need to know my backstory..."

The room fell into a silence as the two males stared each other down. Sam stood over to the side spectating the scene with an annoyed face. He turned away from the two and rolled his eyes, pointing his attention to the young girl. "Where are you guys gonna stay?" He finally said, breaking the silence.

"What?" Muds asked, breaking eye contact with Dean

"Where are you guys gonna stay?" Sam repeated his question "You gotta have a place to stay until you get yourself situated, so where you gonna stay until then?"

"At the house..." Muds responded, confusion edging his voice "Heather's mom bought the house and some of the bills are paid for her since her husband died..."

"Oh." Was all that Sam said in response as he forced himself to look over to the wall than at anyone else.

"Well, I say that you guys spend the night here." Dean said, rising off of the bed and wandering over to his brother "The house may become dangerous because of the demons that seem to be pinpointing you guys."

"We're not staying here." Muds growled, standing up with his arms crossed stubbornly "Why should we listen to you?"

Dean sighed, mentally face-palming himself before rearing around with a serious look on his face .

"I'm tired of your _stupid_ attitude, pal. So you can just put away the 'tude and try and be sensible for once. Do you want that little girl to get hurt?! If not, then I suggest that you sleep _here_ for the night. You can go back tomorrow when the coast is clear." the short haired man shouted, drawing the attention of the dark skinned girl sitting on the bed. Her gaze flickered between all three of the males before she held up the drawing in her hands.

"I drew you guys." She chimed, gaining the attention of the males. "See, this one is Muds." She pointed to a figure with some scrawny looking wings and messy hair.

"This is Dean." She gestured to the figure with really spiky hair and angry eyebrows.

"And this is Sam." She pointed her finger at the last figure, the tallest one, who had long hair and was the only one with a smile on their face.

Sam snorted, a smile stretching on his face while Muds got a few chuckles in. Dean lifted up a questioning eyebrow before grabbing the paper and scanning it over. "Why do I look so angry?" he asked, giving the girl an unsure look.

All she did was shrug in response, a toothy grin on her face.

"Hmmm, well can I keep this?" Dean asked.

When Heather nodded yes, he folded up the piece of paper and tucked it into his pocket, then turned to Sam, who still had a playful smile on his face. "The kid's an artist." Dean chuckled, a small smile creeping onto his face. Muds snorted at the two brother's, a look of annoyance still on his face, before melting out of his human form and returning to the Teddy bear.

* * *

**Next day **

"Bye Sam. Bye Dean." Heather chirped to the two older males, giving both of them hugs. She had grown fond of both of them when Sam had drawn some pictures with her yesterday before they went to bed and Dean went out to go get her some snacks to eat. Muds still didn't seem to like Dean, but he had accepted Sam. When the young girl returned to her spot beside the embodiment on the edge of the driveway, Sam pulled out some paper from his back pocket and handed it over to Muds.

"Call us if you have any trouble." The tall man said, handing him the scrawled out phone number. Muds took it silently, and stuffed it into his pocket. He didn't care to notify them that he didn't have any cellular device of his own, but kept the paper anyway.

The two brothers got into their car, each of them sparing the tag team one last glance before driving off down the road.

Muds was the first to turn away, beckoning the young girl inside the house. The body of the dead man, that had been on the driveway yesterday, was gone without a trace. There was no police cars or police tape to show that the popes had taken the body away, so the duo assumed that it was some demonic creature who had done it.

Upon entering the house, however, the two were stunned to see that it was a mess. Curtains in shreds, furniture flipped over and the TV busted. There was a body of a dead man in the middle of the floor, which was surrounded by curious flies. Heather grimaced at the sight and Muds sighed, walking up the stairs with Heather following closely behind.

The two entered the mother's room, Muds striding in confidently while Heather timidly followed. The embodiment then went along searching through the drawers for something. He poured out make-up, underwear, clothing, and other scattered items. He finally stopped when he saw some money fall out onto the ground, swooping it up and pocketing the bills.

Herding the girl out of the room, they then headed on down the hall to Heather's room which looked to be the worst of the house. Things were thrown everywhere, the paper on the walls were ripped down, the bed was in disarray, the nightlight was busted. There was blood smeared along the wall, which spooked Heather.

"Muds..." The girl croaked, hand clenching onto the taller male's pants leg. The shaggy haired male hadn't said a word since he woke up this morning besides the 'good morning' he uttered out to the brother's and the little girl.

Looking down at her, the man sighed as he saw that tears were beginning to spring at the corner of her eyes "Yes, Heather."

"I'm scared." She rasped, burying her head into the man's leg "I'm so scared. I want my Mommy."

Now she was crying.

Muds bent down to pull the girl into his embrace, his white wings sprouting from his back and encasing the two of them in a protective shield of feathers. "Shhhh, Heather, its okay. I'm here. I will protect you. I will always protect you." he cooed reassuringly, dark brown eyes flashing white for a moment. "Always."

* * *

**This chapter was shorter than my last one, and I wrote this one faster than my last one.**

**There has been some difficulties I have been facing, so chapters may roll out a bit slower.**

**Next chapter there will be a time-skip and that's the chapter where the duo goes out on their first hunt. **

**Hazel Out.**


	3. Detour

**Hello. This would probably be the start of the seriousness is this story, so hold on to your hats (or whatever clothing you have.)**

**Lets dive deeper, shall we?**

**Update: I have decided to run a little side blog aside from my regular tumblr account. Here, you guys should go check it out. It's brand new. Just type in tagteamduo . tumblr .com (no spaces)**

**I just got the blog up and running, and I'm still trying to figure out everything works. You should check it out, I'll be editing more stuff on it today.**

* * *

_I watched it all in my head, perfect sense._  
_ Don't take me from me my bed,_  
_ Leave everything that is worth a single cent and just take me instead._  
_ That TV show,_  
_ I saw as I fell asleep._  
_ Had me on both my knees,_  
_ Praying to whatever is in heaven please send me a felon,_  
_ And don't let the police know._

_-The Neighborhood, Female Robbery_

* * *

___Detour_

* * *

_**Five months later**_

**(August 26, 2008)**

"Heather, did you pack the clothing that you want?"

"Yeah, Muds."

"Did you grab the Teddy bear."

"Yes, Muds."

"Did you practice the exorcism spell?"

"No..."

It's been five months. Five months since the run in with the Winchester brothers and a whole five months since Heather's mother has died. It's not easy for a child to be without it's parents. They begin to isolate themselves and they begin to think.

They brew and stew and stir in their young thoughts. It's only the first stages of their downfall, however, and they have a long way to go before they fall over the deep end and their lives are filled with anxiety and darkness.

Its a pretty dark trail for a child.

Muds was no help to the situation because he was either studying for his driving school or working on papers for Heather's adoption, then he'd drill her on studying how to make demon traps or creating holy water. In truth, Heather didn't want anything to do with demons anymore. She just wanted her life how it used to be, with her worrisome mother and her protective _always-there-for-you_ embodiment.

Recently, the embodiment had been disregarding her. He left every morning at 9 and wouldn't get back until 5 in the afternoon, and then when he got home he usually gave her some stolen food then sat down to read until it was time for bed. He told her to go over the list of things she needed to do while he was gone, which included: Moping the floors with holy water, studying, cleaning, boarding off any entryways, and staying in her room with the door locked.

Pretty boring activity for a young girl.

By the time Muds got back everyday, the dark skinned girl was bored out of her mind and swimming in discarded toys or papers in her room.

The only thing she could do was hope that Muds would go back to his regular self once they hit the rode and left this town. He had already claimed adoption over Heather, managed to get an ID and gotten a car (not with any help of Sam or Dean since they wouldn't pick up their phones when he called them), so they were ready to leave.

"Heather, I thought I told you to study." The embodiment huffed once the young girl had scampered her way into the living room wearing her jean jacket, white shirt and black pants. The teddy bear clutched in her arms was always the accessory to any of her outfits.

"I did study!" She retorted, stomping the ground angrily with her foot "I've been studying non stop for four months!"

Muds nose wrinkled slightly as she reacted so angrily, huffing again "Do not use that tone of voice and you are 11 years old, you do not need to stomp your foot."

Heather's eyes narrowed slightly, before grumbling a few words under her breath. It was true, she was_ now_ 11 years old, her birthday had passed a few months ago on **July 15th. **They didn't do anything exciting on that day, because Muds didn't exactly understand the birthday thing and he said it was too dangerous to go anywhere, but she had gotten some cupcakes and a new shirt.

"Right, right. I'm 11. I'm all _grown up_ now." She grouchily agreed, rolling her eyes.

The brown eyed male standing above her raised an eyebrow, then briskly turned away and headed out to the front of the house, shouting "Go get your things from your room and bring them downstairs."

Heather watched the man walk out the front door before cuddling into her teddy bear and turning to head back up the steps to her room. The upstairs hallway walls were heavily marked with demon traps and there was a demon trap drawn right outside Heather's room. A bag was waiting inside the room, mostly stuffed with clothing, some of the stolen books from a library, and her notebook she drew in.

Hauling it over her shoulder and carrying down the steps, she headed out to the front of the house where Muds was waiting patiently for her. In his hand was some mail, probably the bills that were suppose to be paid a month ago.

"You ready?" He asked once she came into sight.

Heather's mind was practically screaming **_"no"._** She was definitely _not_ ready to do this. She would be leaving behind her whole life, the neighborhood she knew, her school friends. She had grew up in this neighborhood her whole life and now since the demons know about her _ability_, she's being forced to leave. Where were they suppose to stay? There was no place that they could be safe for too long. Were they suppose to stay on the road all the time? Would Muds actually stay here if she said_ no_?

Yet, even with all the thoughts that flooded her mind, Heather simply uttered "Yeah" and dragged the bag over to the trunk. As she did so, she took a moment to look over the "new" car.

"Yeah, very new." She snorted, taking in the rust that stuck to the bottom of the car and the scratches that streaked the side of the vehicle. Heading around to the side of the car and pulling open the door, she hopped into the back seat and slammed the door closed.

"Not gonna sit in the front?"

"No, thank you." Heather muttered, turning to look out the car window. The car shifted as Muds turned around to look back at the girl sitting in the backseat. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he looked her over with his brown eyes, mouth opening to say something. However, the male quickly closed his mouth and turned around to brace his hands onto the steering wheel.

"You've been quiet." he spoke slowly, as if she was some soft of small animal that would flee at the start of a loud noise.

_Who are you?! My mother? Why does that concern you? If anything, you're the one that's been quiet. Actually you've been more than quiet! You've been secretive and don't tell me anything! Whats gotten into __**you**__!? _Heather's face soured as her mind raced, her brown eyes frantically glancing over to look at the driver then back at the car window.

"Heather?" Muds cautioned, turning his head slightly so he could look back at the girl.

"What?" The young girl spat, fully turning to look at the male.

Silence filled the vehicle as the duo locked eyes, one pair of brown eyes filled with shock and the other filled with silent anger. The male opened his mouth to speak, closed his mouth and frowned before whipping around in his seat and staring out the front window. "Nevermind." He muttered, starting up the car.

However, the young girl had not torn her eyes from the male and still held a challenging gaze before huffing and slouching back into her seat to look out the window. The car had started moving now, and the girl angrily watched as her familiar neighborhood melted into unfamiliar territory. Suddenly, the young girl was no longer angry, but now curious. She pulled herself out of her slouch and stared out the window with large wonder-filled brown eyes as the new surroundings rushed past.

Heather had never been outside her neighborhood except for the one time her mother had to bring Heather to work because there was no babysitter to watch her. There were so many new houses and they passed a lot of fields and the houses continued to thin out until there was nothing,but a long stretch of grass and hardly any houses. "Where are we going?" Heather wondered out loud, still watching the passing surroundings.

"North Dakota." Muds answered, his brown eyes fixed on the road. "There's someone that I need to talk to. Unfinished business."

"NORTH DAKOTA!?" Heather squealed, snapping her head around "That's such a long way. Is it really that important that we need to go to North Dakota?"

"Yes it is. It's **really** important. Besides, we shouldn't stay in one place for too long. You could be h-"

"Hurt. Yeah I got it." Heather grumbled, turning away.

* * *

Three hours on the road and Heather started to get antsy. At first she had yelled at nearly every farm animal they passed because she had never seen a real farm animal before, only on television, but she eventually got tired of doing that and started to sing. Muds told her to stop doing that because her singing was distracting, so the young girl ended up drawing in her notebook. She drew pretty much whatever they drove by. Trees, grass, some of the horses, some of the cows, cars, trucks. She tried to draw Muds, but couldn't fully see him from behind the car seat. So there really wasn't much to occupy her besides look up at the ceiling and think.

"Muds, I'm hungry."

"Already?" The embodiment asked, his voice filled with surprise as he looked at her through the rear window.

"Hey. I'm not an embodiment like you. You don't need to eat food to survive." Heather exclaimed, crossing her arms and kicking the back of his seat as her stomach growled hungrily. The embodiment sighed, driving the car off the highway at the next exit and pulling up to a gas station claiming that he _needed to get gas anyway. _Heather hopped out the car and turned to the embodiment as he came around the vehicle.

"Come on. Stay close." Muds instructed her as the duo walked into the gas station.

The building itself didn't look that good. Some of the neon words on top of the gas station wasn't lit up and the place looked pretty dingy, and inside was no better. Heather nearly freaked out as soon as she stepped into the store because of the rat that shot across the floor and ducked underneath a shelf of food. Muds didn't seem to take any notice of the place, just paid for the gas pump and told Heather to go get herself something to eat.

Scurrying her way through the aisles, Heather grabbed a bag of potato chips, some juice and a cold ham and cheese sandwich from the freezers. When she turned around to go bring the items up to the counter she almost screamed on the top of her lungs as she came face to face with a strange man standing behind her. He was dressed in a really tacky black coat and dirty pants. His brown hair was tussled and he stared down at her with glinting green eyes.

He wasn't a demon, that was for sure, but he still gave Heather the chills.

"Excuse me." Heather muttered, maneuvering her way around the man and keeping her gaze low.

"Hey!" The man barked, causing the young girl to freeze in her tracks "Watch your back, little girl. Such a delicate ability should not be allowed into the hands of what will become of this world. You are too young to be _exposed_ to the dangers of this world."

Even though her back was towards the man, Heather's face scrunched up in confusion. He didn't even sound like he was saying the sentence correctly and his words were slurred together in a way that made it hard for her to understand him. Why was he even speaking to her?

_He's drunk_ Heather mused to herself

"Heather!?"

The shouting from Muds forced the girl to move, and she headed over to the checkout counter while trying to resist the urge to turn around and give the man a confused gaze. The messy brown haired man sent her a worried look and gazed behind the young girl, but found nothing out of the ordinary and paid for the food. When they headed out to the car and Muds had gassed up the car, they were back out onto the road in no time.

"We're low on money." Muds spoke absentmindedly, probably noting that to himself rather than the girl in the back seat. "Probably gonna have to steal some more money."

"Why can't you just raise your money?" Heather snapped, opening her bag of chips "That money could be other people's life savings or something, you know? Why not go gamble with the rest of the adults."

"Since when do you care about other people." Muds snorted, steering onto the highway. "Besides. I don't think I'll do very well with other people. I might end up killing someone."

Heather snorted at him, pulling a potato chip into her mouth. Her thoughts immediately rushed to the man inside the store. He wasn't a demon, she had confirmed, but he didn't have the aura of a human. There was some type of... mystical aura around him and the glint in his eyes didn't appear natural. _Maybe he **was** a demon... _Heather thought. _Maybe my abilities are going away__...nah. Why would they go away now?_ ,but it was bugging her to no end. Who was that man and why did he say something to her. Where did he even come from? It's like he fell from the sky...or something. _Grrrr..._why was his aura _different_ that the other humans?!

"Augh." Heather hissed, tossing the chips out of her lap and onto the seat next to her "Stupid man."

"Are you talking to me, Heather?"

"No, Muds."

"What man were talking about? Was there a man in that store, Heather? **Did he say something to you?**" Muds spluttered, looking at her through the rear view mirror.

"Whoa hold your horses." Heather chuckled, holding her hands up to show that she surrendered "I'm not talking about anyone."

"Then who's this man?" Muds countered, his eyebrows scrunching up together in frustration as he watched the girl through the mirror. Heather didn't reply, just stared over at Muds through the corner of her eye before leaning her head against the window.

"Heather, I'm talking to you!" He nagged. However, his nagging went on unheard as Heather's eyes fluttered close and his voice was blocked out as she began to fall asleep.

* * *

It was nightfall by the time Muds decided that he should give the car a rest and give Heather a proper place to sleep. Muds had made to North Dakota, Fargo. It laid on the outside of the state, and it was the exact location he had been aiming for.

He pulled up to a small motel, looking at it with distaste as he got out the car and went around to haul Heather into his arms from the backseat. The eleven year old girl gave sounds of sleepy protests as she was carried into the motel building.

After he had gotten the keys and struggled to keep a grip on the protesting child, he entered the room and tucked her into the king sized bed that sat in the small room. Muds sighed, running a hand through his messy hair as he stared down at the young girl. He could tell that she wasn't into the whole idea of running away from her hometown, but he wasn't about to lose her. He wouldn't lose her. He **couldn't!** He cared too much for the girl and after what had happened in the past-

Muds let out another sigh, now running an irritated hand down his face. He didn't require any sleep. It was a thing he had found unnecessary over time and decided that he did not need to participate in such task. However, Heather was another thing. She still needed her sleep as she was a growing child and _still_ human. Turning away from the bed and pulling a black marker out of his back pocket, he started drawing demon traps along the walls of the hotel room. He could care less about what the maids or the manager would think. He just needed to be sure that Heather would not be harmed.

Finishing up with the symbols, he capped the marker and tucked it back into his pocket. Slowly, reluctantly, he made his way over to the hotel door. Giving one last glance towards the small sleeping female figure on the bed, he slipped through the door and locked it.

He exited the motel room, and headed off down the street. It was cold outside ,despite it being summer, and Muds' breath fogged in the air as he breathed. He was practically drowning himself in his thoughts and he tried to figure out what he was gonna do now that him and Heather were out on the road. He felt a bit of remorse knowing that he had taken the young girl away from the only place she's known her whole life. Yet, she had said she was okay with this happening when he asked her earlier. Suddenly a question twinged in his head.

_What about her relatives?_

Of course they were gonna worry for the girl, they were her family! They were probably gonna be worried sick about what happened to the mother and the daughter and why they suddenly vanished leaving behind a house full of salt and weird looking symbols. Muds felt sick to his stomach at the thought and tried to push it to the back of his head and focus on why he was walking the streets.

He was looking for someone. A henchman.

A henchman to a witch.

He had heard about the henchman appearance in a few cities surrounding Fargo, the person leaving behind traces of discarded rituals and dead bodies. Fargo was just another city in the henchman's path.

A scream shattered the air and Muds froze at the sound. The scream had just came from a few blocks ahead of him and he could already hear more screams being let out into the air. In excitement that it might be the person he was searching for, the embodiment took off. He sprinted all the way to the source of the screaming, which revealed to be an alleyway, and rounded to it cautiously.

The scene he saw disappointed him.

He could practically smell the vodka before he saw the lady pinned against the wall underneath a man in a red flannel. The lady was the one doing all the screaming as she sluggishly struggled to push the man away as his hands roamed her body. Muds scoffed, bored with the scene, and was about to turn away when he saw the man bite into the girl's neck. He faltered, thinking that the man was just giving the girl a hickey, but saw the sharp teeth piercing the side of her throat as blood began to swell at the wounds. The lady was now screaming louder, trying to pry his face away from her neck.

_Demon. _

Muds growled, braced himself, then launched forward and crashed into the man's shoulder. The women fell to the ground, heavy panting while she spasmodically grabbed at the gaping wound that was pouring blood from her neck. The demon looked momentarily surprised as Muds pinned him to the ground, his fingertips flashing white before he plunged his hand into the man's chest.

That should have killed the demon right away.

Muds felt his hand sinking into the warm blood of the creature's chest as he reached for the demon's heart. However, the demon didn't look all that pained. He was wincing, of course, but he didn't look surprised by the pain like most demons did. Suddenly the man lurched forward and grabbed onto Muds shoulders, catching him off guard and tossing him onto the side of the alley. The embodiment hit the wall, and sunk to the ground as he tried to regain himself. The demon should be writhing in pain on the floor, he had just bonded the creature with it's host and plunged his hand into the thing's chest, **WHY IS IT NOT WRITHING?! **

Instead, the demon picked himself off the ground and headed over to the lady who was shaking on the ground. Blood was still seeping from her neck when the man came over and plunged his teeth back into the lady's neck and ripped out a large chunk of flesh. Chewing and swallowing, the demon peered over at Muds with a smug grin full of blood before whipping around and walking calmly out of the alleyway.

The embodiment leaped off the ground and tried to follow, but when he turned the corner the man wasn't in sight. The ladies dying gasps were reverberating off the walls of the alley, mixed with choking sobs and the smell of blood. Muds glanced back at her and met her gaze. Her silent pleading gaze.

"Sorry." The embodiment apologized, furrowing his eyebrows to give the lady a look of sorrow. The girl opened her mouth to say something as the man sauntered over to her body and reached down to touch her. It looked like he was attempting to help her, but he actually dug into her skirt pocket and pulled out her wallet. Stealing the money that was inside the leather skinned wallet, he turned his back on the pleading lady and took off down the street.

* * *

By morning Muds had put the whole scene behind himself and taken Heather out to a diner for breakfast. The duo slipped into a booth and the embodiment leaned backwards leisurely as the girl looked over the menu for something to eat.

"Hey, Muds." Heather spoked, brown eyes glancing at him from behind the menu.

"What?"

"Where were you last night?"

Muds' eyes narrowed, and his chin tilted up higher as he stared down the younger girl.

"I woke up sometime last night and you weren't in bed." Heather continued, lowering her eyes from the man's intense stare.

"I went out." Muds grumbled, turning his head away to mimic Heather's move "I needed some fresh air."

Heather scoffed a little and was about to open her mouth to speak when the waiter came over. It was a clean, crisp, looking young lady who's hair was pulled into a very messy bun. She looked like she had just drank a gallon of coffee and 'happy juice' because there was a large smile plastered over her face.

"Hello. What can I get for you two?" She chirped, her voice immediately annoying Muds.

"I'll have the scrambled eggs and bacon, please. With a side of toast and orange juice." A classic breakfast, Heather's mother would call it. Muds didn't reply to the lady and kept his brown eyes trained on the marble table they were sitting at.

"Anything for you?" The lady asked, directing her voice towards the embodiment. Muds glanced up at her and shook his head. However, the women seemed reluctant at his answer.

"You sure?" She wondered, her smile slipping for a moment. In return to her question, Muds fixed her with a cold stare until she finally broke eye contact and her smile returned on her face, though it was more nervous this time.

"Right. Okay. Thank you." She muttered, walking away.

Heather let out a snort as the lady's figure retreated into the kitchen. It was amusing that she had reacted towards Muds that way. The young girl knew that he wouldn't hurt anyone that wasn't a harm to her, so it was comical to see the lady nervous by his stare. Suddenly the door to the diner slammed open and loud voices were thrown across the place. It sounded like a bunch of rowdy bikers, to be honest, and Heather gave them reluctant looks as they walked by.

Well, they would've walked by if one of the guys hadn't stopped in the middle of their tracks and turned to Muds. A frown cascaded on his face and the rest of the gang stopped along with him. Muds seemed visibly irritated now, and he pulled back his lip to snarl in the guy's direction.

"Well. I do believe I saw you yesterday evening." The man scoffed, his eyes attempting to bore holes into the embodiment "Boys, this is the man I told you about yesterday. The one who interrupted my feeding."

The whole diner was now staring at the confrontation going on between the gang and the duo at the table. There was at least 5 gang members. The lead guy was dressed in a red flannel and a pair of ripped jeans, his brown hair matted down in several places and grime staining the side of his face.

"Demon. Watch your tone." Muds muttered, not looking at the gang. He appeared to not want to start a big fight in the diner, even if he looked like he wanted to kill the bastard.

_What?_ Heather thought. She looked between the gang members, trying to figure out which one Muds was referring to as a demon, but she couldn't find it. Maybe she was losing her ability.

"Listen boy," The guy suddenly shouted, slamming his hands onto the table and rearing into Muds' personal space "I don't think you know what you did yesterday,but you're gonna be in some big trouble for that, ya hear? Unless you go right ahead and skip town, you're dead meat." The young girl across from him gave a nervous gaze at the two males then at the gang circling the table.

"Alright. Settle down!" A nervous shout from across the diner drew the attention to the lady who had taken Heather's order. She looked to be attempting to give the gang a scolding stare, but was failing miserably. "You gentlemen are going to have to l-leave. We do not tolerate rough-housing or fighting here. Please..."

"Hmpf." The guy scoffed, turning his gaze towards the lady. She seemed to fold underneath his eyes, and casted her stare onto the wooden floor.

"Whatever. Dumb diner." The guy growled, motioning for his gang to follow him to the door. Before he left, however, he kicked over one of the chairs and sent a warning glare towards Muds then disappeared out of the restaurant. The embodiment didn't seem phased by the man's threat and continued to stare at the marble table. The occupants of the diner began to go back to eating their food, and the lady disappeared back into the kitchen.

"They're not demons, you know." Heather spoke, drawing his attention.

"What?"

"I heard you say something about one of them being demons. I do not see any demon faces, those men are not being possessed, they are not demons." Heather replied, nodding.

",but...he...tee- Nevermind. Forget what I said." Muds huffed.

"Whatever."

* * *

The scene in the diner bothered Heather all day. She couldn't quite place why she had a vibe that the gang seemed to be different than the other humans in the diner, she just had a feeling. She tried to explain the vibe to Muds in the car, but he brushed off her theory and continued driving.

They pretty much drove around town the whole day. Muds seemed to on an endless search and wherever they stopped to investigate a place, it just appeared to make him more antsy by the lack of results they received. Nightfall came sooner than expected and Heather found herself drifting off to sleep once more. They ended up repeating last night and booking a motel again. This night ,when Muds exited the room, he didn't leave the motel, just went into the lobby to use the phone.

He attempted to call Sam, again. He had tried before in the past when he needed help on demon information or other little problems that had popped up while they were back in Minnesota. So, why not try again?

"Ruby?" A breathy voice answered the phone, surprising Muds. Sam hadn't picked up his cell for five months, why the hell was he answering his calls now?

"No, this isn't..._Ruby_...this is Muds."

"Who. What? How did you get my phone number." Sam breathed irritably.

"You gave it to me! Five months ago when you and your idiot brother, Dean came out to Minnesota searching for a killer and you guys made Heather and my life so much harder." Muds sighed, rubbing his face irritably.

"...Oh. Muds. Right, Right. You were with the girl that drew that picture. Haley-"

"Heather."

"Right, Right, Heather. Why are you calling me?"

Muds was irritated by his tone of voice and wanted to yell at Sam for not answering his cell in the past months and then hang up, but instead he grumbled insults under his breath before responding. "Do you know any type of demon with sharp teeth?"

"Sharp teeth?" Sam echoed.

"Yeah. Sharp teeth. I was out yesterday and saw some guy biting on this girl's neck. His teeth was sharp, I think it might have been a demon."

"No, Muds, I think you may be dealing with a vampire."

"_Vampire?_ You're kidding. That stuff ain't real, Sam."

Sam huffed into the phone. "Muds, you believe in demons. You, _yourself,_ are some supernatural being. I think you should give the possibility a thought. Anyway, you have to kill a vampire by cutting off its head, but I suggest that you two try and get out of town since you guys aren't hunter and don't have the equipment to take on a vampire."

Muds snorted "I'm killing this thing. I ain't running."

"You have a chi-"

"Bye, Sam. Thanks." Muds interrupted what would become an argument, cutting off the conversation and putting the phone back on the hook. He turned around and trekked his way back to the room, quietly opening the door and slipping into the quiet room. He headed around the bed to sit down when he noticed Heather stir and flip over to face him. Her eyes were wide open and a look of silent urgency was on her face as the teddy bear laying beside her was suffocated in her grip.

Muds froze, staring at her face as she slowly drifted her eyes to the corner behind the door.

He reacted to late. While trying to whip around to the direction, a sharp pain hit him on the side of his head and he crumpled onto the floor, unconscious.

When he awoke again he found himself chained. The area he was in looked to be some old abandon garage with spiderwebs hanging down from the ceiling and dusty collected on wooden beams supporting the building. There was a smell of decay and aging wood reminiscing through the area, and the embodiment wrinkled is nose at the scent. A sudden realization caused him to deadpan, where was Heather?

He yanked at the chains harshly as they bound both of his arms to a wooden beam above him and left his limbs suspended in the air. A groan sounded from the left of him and he strained his head towards the sound, hoping it to be his young companion. However, all he saw was a beaten up man with teeth marks over his neck and an empty syringe laying beside him. The man was strapped down with ropes and looked like he wouldn't be moving anytime soon.

Light flooded the garage and caused Muds to wince backwards.

"Get in!" A rough voice demanded, showing a small silhouette into the garage. An 'oof' sounded as the silhouette hit the ground and a man stepped into the garage after it.

"Get up!" The man snapped, shoving the figure with his foot.

"Please. Please, don't beat me anymore." The figure whimpered, and Muds recognized the voice instantly. _Heather!_ He gritted his teeth together at the tone of her voice, it sounded pitiful. Now full of determination to get to the younger female, the embodiment started pulling on his chains harder. This did not go unnoticed by the man.

"Ah! You're awake!" The man exclaimed, moving away from the pleading girl and leaving her to scramble off into a corner somewhere. Muds realized that this was the man from before. The man who had threaten him in front of all of those people in the diner, and Muds had to hold his temper so he wouldn't get kicked out. The messy haired man twisted in his chains as the man neared him, trying to get up and punch that confident smirk off of the vampire's face.

"I thought I told you to skip town!" He hissed, a hand reaching up to lay on the embodiment's shoulder. Muds snorted, then spit on the man's face and smiled as the man reared back in disgust.

"Why you!- no. no. I'm not gonna hit you." The vampire's anger had flared up unexpectedly only to be snuffed back out as the confident smirk reappeared on his face. "I don't have to hit you. That wouldn't hurt you as much as I want you to." he had sauntered his way over to a wooden desk, where a syringe full of blood laid.

"What is that?!" Muds growled, referring to the needle.

"Vampire blood." He said cooly, picking up the syringe "One drop of this stuff gets in your system and you turn-" he turned to stare at the embodiment "-into one of us."

"Why would you want to do that?" Muds huffed, his brown eyes moving away from the man to the small figure that was ducking into a dark corner at the edge of the garage.

"Oh. You don't know." He chuckled. "Vampire's are a dying species. You see, when we have _hunters_ like y-"

"Hunter? What!? I'm not a hunter." Muds argued defensively, trying not to noticed how close the vampire was getting.

"Oh, you're not...Honestly, I don't even think you're human...Well that would explain why you were able to plunge your hand into my chest while I was feeding the other night. However, that's not gonna stop me from injecting this needle into your neck and seeing what might happen. If i'm lucky, you might turn and then I can entertain myself as I watch you rip that little girl back there to pieces."

"As if." Muds grunted. He was still trying to figure out a way from his shackles. Then it hit him. _Duh,_ he could easily decompose into a puddle of light onto the floor. Before he could do that, a metal can shot out from the side of the garage and hit the vampire on the side of his head.

It didn't seem to do much, but cause the man irritation as he slowly turned to the direction Heather was cowering. This provided Muds the little distraction he needed to give the man a little surprise.

"Dumb girl." The vampire muttered, dragging his attention from the cowering girl and back to the...where'd he go? The shaggy haired male was no longer in his bindings, which confused the vampire and he took a couple steps away in surprise.

"Hello!" the voice of the embodiment was behind the vampire now.

The man whipped around, and readied the needle, but he did not get a chance to attack as a wooden beam came swinging for his head. The beam struck him and he fell to the ground, a gash now on his face from the hit.

"Goodbye." Muds chirped, slamming the beam down on the vampire's head. This only caused another gash, however, so Muds aimed for the neck this time as he raised the beam up and slammed it down, again. The head came off rather messily, leaving a couple of tendons still connecting the head to it's body and the spinal cord shattered. Blood was dripping from the end of the board as Muds walked his way over to the unconscious man being strapped down.

Bending down to inspect his arm, Muds scoffed and stood up with his weapon braced in his hands. Before he could strike the man, Heather ran from her hiding spot and flung herself at the embodiment. The girl looked a little paler despite her dark complexion and there was bite marks and gashes on her neck. She had little bruises on her arms and there was a mark on her face. In her arms hung the dog teddy bear, which was now filthy and covered in dried blood.

"Heather..." Muds whispered, startled by her appearance. His face fell for a moment before it was steeled again and he ordered her to turn around. When Heather had her back to the unconscious man and the embodiment, Muds proceeded to beat the knocked out man with the wooden beam. It was harder to knock the head off this time, but Muds got multiple lucky swings to the man's head before the neck started to give in and the skin began to burst. With one final swing, the head toppled off of the man's head and onto the floor. Te embodiment's face and arms were now splattered in blood, but Muds wasn't done.

"Stay here." The embodiment ordered Heather. All the young girl did was nod head, too tired and weak to argue. As he left the garage and entered the house, the sound of surprised shouting followed by pained grunting echoes from the building. Heather did nothing but sit there, clutching too tightly onto the teddy bear. Her neck and shoulders burned from where the bite marks were. The vampires hadn't exactly injected her with anything, they just played with her. They kept sinking their teeth into her collarbone only to hear her scream and protest. It was a sick game that Heather did not know the motive of, but they eventually got tired of their game and started to actually inflict wounds onto her and lap up the blood that swelled from them. Bruises covered her arms where they shoved and pulled her if she moved too slow. The lead man had forced them to stop, saying that he wanted to use her for food for the older male in there and that _it would give him something entertaining._

The pained screams from the creatures inside were usually followed by some loud banging or the sound of something being hit repeatedly.

Heather swallowed harshly. She was sitting in a garage with two dead males, their fresh blood slowly creeping across the cool cement floor. The girl shuttered, then pulled the teddy bear closer to her as if it was her reassurance.

* * *

"We uh...We ran into a gang yesterday. They had a dog on them...they, uh, they beat us up." Muds lied to the the policemen who had come to investigate him when he had brought the girl to the hospital. He had no medical supplied to treat her himself, and he didn't want to leave the hospital so he was forced to answer the questions that the policemen had to ask.

"Are you sure this is what happened? Are you sure you weren't drunk?" One of the policemen asked, raising his eyebrow at the embodiment. Muds glared at the policemen, holding back the impulse to choke him. "No. Why would I do that?" He hissed, still glaring.

"I don't know. Its not uncomo-"

"Where do you think those teeth marks came from." Muds snapped, his brown eyes narrowing.

"I dunno. Pet maybe."

"I TOLD YOU WE RAN INTO A GANG!"

"Sir, please calm down. Listen, we won't ask you anymore questions. We've got enough information already, thank you for your time."

Muds kept staring at the policemen as they left the waiting area. He was really pissed that they had thought, even for a split second, that he would harm Heather. The two of them had came into the hospital just a few hours ago, before dawn. Muds was covered in fresh and dried blood and Heather looked like she wrestled with a tiger. The doctors checked them both, which Muds deemed unnecessary and that they should treat Heather, and they found out that Muds blood was someone else's.

"Mr. Cutlass?" A doctor called him.

Muds glanced up, almost forgetting that he had a last name. When he had did all the papers for Heather, he gave himself a last name so that it would be the same as Heather's. The embodiment grunted at the doctor's voice.

"You may see your daughter now."

The embodiment followed the doctor down the hall and into a small room where Heather was lying in a bed. There were elephants and giraffes painted on her walls and there was a couple of fuzzy beanbags in the corner of the room. The dark skinned girl was sleeping. There was a lot of bandaids around her collarbone and neck and an IV was in her arm. She was still in her tattered jean jacket and black pants, and there was a strange oil rubbed onto her arm.

"She will be fine, Mr. Cutlass. She suffered minor blood loss, bite marks and bruises. The bruises should clear up after a couple of days. The bite marks may take a couple weeks before they disappear. You will be able to take her out of the hospital tomorrow afternoon after we do a couple more tests on her."

"Thank you, doctor." Muds replied idly, his gaze focused on the young girl.

She seemed so vulnerable in this state.

Pulling up a chair to sit beside her bed, Muds eyes laid on her face. Bags were under her eyes and there was a cut on her lip.

He felt guilty. If he had just _skipped town_ like he had been warned to do, Heather wouldn't be in this hospital bed. This was his fault. This was all his fault,but it wasn't like the vampires hadn't gotten what they deserved. When he had entered the house, there was at least 5 of them. He stunned the first two vampires, then proceeded to beat the other vampire until it begged for mercy. He killed the other two quickly with a powerful swing of his wooden beam and beaten the remaining vampires to a bloody mess before popping their heads off.

_I didn't protect you_

Muds sighed, leaning his head forward to rest on the edge of the bed. He wasn't tired, just irritated. Here he was, no injury from where he had been hit on the side of his head. No aching muscles from the repeated swinging of the wood beam. No bruises from where he pulled on the chains. He was perfectly fine, and he felt guilty because of it. He should feel something! Come on! How was it that he came out of this mess with a clean bill of health and Heather came out like she had been mauled by a bear?!

Muds sighed again, this time his sigh turning into an agitated growl. As he shifted his head slightly to glance up at Heather, he noticed a piece of paper lying on her chest next to his freshly cleaned teddy bear form. The note looked crumpled and he swear that it hadn't been there when he entered the room.

Reaching out to grab it, he skimmed over the paper.

_I believe that you are a little too late, my friend. I have already made my way out of this town by the time you finish reading this letter. I advise you not to search for me, you can become caught in some bad spell crossfire. By the way, your companion seems a little young, don't you think._

_-O_

Muds grimaced, his hand tightening on the paper. "Damn henchman." he grumbled, burying his face into the bed. He wasn't aware of the presence of a doctor who was leaning against the doorway, watching the scene with an amused expression. A big sloppy grin took up most of the doctor's face as his blue eyes twinkled in wonder. His blonde hair was everywhere, rivaling the messiness of the Muds' hair and sticking outwards in the most perplexed way. With a shake of his head, the doctor pushed himself off the doorway and off down the hall, snickering to himself as he turned the corner and vanished into thin air.

* * *

**Trust me, those two people (the doctor and the 'drunk' man from the store) ,in this story, will make a return in future chapters. Anyway, I think I may be neglecting my other story for this one, but I've got a lot of thing planned out for this story and I've got a blog up and running. No, seriously, you should check out the blog and give it a little support.**

**Little notes: Muds can sleep, he just has the option whether he wants to or not (which is the reason he was able to be knocked out.) and he has a limited wardrobe which consists of his red vest, a couple gray t-shirts, a black vest, and plenty of button up shirts.**

**I'm still working on getting this story noticed somehow, but even if it doesn't get noticed I'll continue writing. Also, could you please _give me a little feedback on this chapter and review? _I managed to get this done underneath a week, even with all the moving I was doing.**

**And as always, please excuse any typos or misspellings.**

**Hazel Out**


	4. Carnival of souls

_Oh rabbit, my claws are down now so don't be afraid..._  
_I can keep you warm, as long as you can just try... To be brave!_

_Yes I know I'm a wolf, and I've been known to bite,_  
_But the rest of my pack... I've left them behind._  
_And my teeth may be sharp, and I've been raised to kill..._  
_But the though of fresh meat... It's making me ill!_

_So I'm telling you... That you'll be safe with...**  
**_

_-Young Heretics, I know I'm a wolf_

* * *

**September 3, 2008**

**Hayward, ****Wisconsin**

It was about 9:00pm outside, and the whole community was bustling around a single place full of lights and set up tents. There was a ferris wheel in the cluster of lights and tents, along with a couple more rides and a larger red and white tent in the center of all the madness. Through the whole cluster of chaos, kids ran with cotton candy in their hands and shouts of glee could be heard. There were people playing whack-a-mole or riding on the carousel, or balloon darts.

"Come on, Phelix. Pleeeaaasse. I just want one bear." There was the sound of begging coming from one of the set-up activities, The strength tester.

"Alright, whatever Sophia." Came the reply to the begging.

There was a couple over there. A lanky blonde male who was dressed in a raggedy looking gray hoodie, and a raven headed female dressed in a white button up and a gray skirt. The female, Sophia, was the one making all the sounds of pleading while the male, Phelix, just stood in front on the strength tester with an uninterested expression, and a mallet in his hands. He motioned for the female to back up before swinging the mallet over his head and slamming it onto the pressure pad on the machine. The puck in the machine rose to about a couple inches away from the bell and the blonde stared at it with dissatisfaction since the puck had barely passed the "**Macho**" writing on the machine.

Phelix huffed, then turned to Sophia, who was awaiting with an eager expression.

"Come on. I'll just buy you a bear." the blonde told her, throwing the mallet onto the ground.

"Okay." Sophia chirped, tagging after Phelix as he walked from the strength tester and over to the prize booth. Inside, the shelves were lined with brightly colored teddy bears and toy guns, and all these other stupid little objects like bouncy balls and pencils.

"Hey man." Phelix called to the scruffy man running the booth "I wanna buy that unicorn teddy bear."

"Hey, _**man,**_ you gotta win that." The booth man scoffed, glancing at the blonde teenager then looking at the female that was trying to shield herself behind the blonde. Phelix didn't look satisfied with that answer, and pulled out a fifty dollar bill, slamming it down on the booth and sliding it in the man's direction.

"How about I buy that teddy bear, and you go get yourself a haircut." Phelix hissed. The man faltered for a second, looking down at the fifty dollar bill greedily. Finally, he caved and handed them the white unicorn teddy bear, snatching the money away hastily and stuffing it in his pocket.

"Here, Sophia." Phelix said, handing her the unicorn.

"Thank you!" Sophia thanked, taking the unicorn up and squeezing it in her arms. The blonde smiled, proud that he had gotten the girl something, and took her hand in his hand, tugging her through the crowd of people. He was making his way towards the carousel when he got a sudden chill down his back. Stopping, and looking around, he spotted a man in a tux a few yards away. Phelix frowned, and turned to Sophia.

"Doesn't that man in the tuxedo look a bit weird among everyone?" The blonde asked her, pointing in the man's direction. The black haired girl peeked around his shoulder, staring at where he was pointing, but didn't see anything.

"Phelix, there's no one there..." Sophia sighed.

"What? How can you not see him! He's looking this way!" Phelix exclaimed, meeting the gaze of the tux man who was watching the couple with a blank look. Suddenly, he began to walk towards.

"Ah!" Phelix squeaked in alarm, turning around to tug Sophia away from the tux man "He's coming towards us!"

Sophia yelped, surprised, as she was suddenly being dragged through the clusters of people, earning glares and scoffs as the couple pushed and shoved. The blonde was panicked, his palm becoming sweaty as he continued dragging her along. Eventually, he lost his grip on the raven headed girl and she was lost in the cluster of people, but the blonde didn't turn back. He kept moving.

He couldn't explain why, but the man sent some kind of alarm in his head.

The blonde didn't stop running until he got to the abandoned part of the festival, where the cluster of people had thinned out and many of the booths had been shut down for the night. He had hid behind a closed food booth, in the shadows, hoping that the tux man wouldn't find him.

_Why am I hiding? I don't even know what he wants. _His conscious was telling him to confront the man and see what he wanted, but the alarm was still ringing loudly in his head that this man was danger. A sudden shadow passed him and the blonde let out a scream as a hand roughly grasped his shoulder.

"Jesus, Phelix, calm down. What's got you so scared? You're usually not like this." Sophia leaned down to her boyfriend's level, her hand still gripping onto his shoulder. The unicorn was still in her hands, but it looked dirtier now.

At the sight of his girlfriend, the blonde's nerves calmed down a little and his consciousness was making a lot more sense now. "Yeah, sorry I ran off." he breathed, chuckling a little at his reaction to the tux man "I though that the man in the tuxedo was gonna hurt me...or something."

Sophia scoffed at him, commenting about how she hadn't seen anyone dressed in a tuxedo.

"How did you not see him!?" Phelix said with an exasperated sigh, trying to calm his breathing down "He looked really off among everyone else."

Sophia rolled her eyes, and stepped around to hold onto his hands, setting the unicorn down in the process. "Phelix, calm down, would you? There is no guy in the tuxedo. Even if there was, I don't think he would have a reason to hurt you."

The blonde nodded in understanding, his nerves finally settling down. "Right, right. Come on, I still wanna get on the carousel." he said, pulling the female from behind the food booth. However, as he rounded the corner he came face-to-face with tuxedo man.

Before Phelix could take off, the man stretched forward and grasped onto the blonde's shoulder, causing the teenager to crumple onto the ground.

"Phelix, are you alright?" Sophia asked, oblivious to the suited man that towered above the two of them. She reached down to touch his shoulder, but the blonde fell over before she could reach him. "Phelix! Ohmygod!" The raven haired female screeched, huddling next to her boyfriend.

The teenager wouldn't respond to anything his girlfriend was doing, and he wasn't even breathing. He looked dead. Actually, he was dead.

"Ohmygod." She breathed, then she screamed, looking around "Please, someone help me!"

* * *

**The Next day**

**Right outside of Hayward, ****Wisconsin**

The car radio was playing _Sober by Pink_ for the eight time that hour and Muds glanced towards the radio with an irritated look. He reached over to turn it off, but Heather glanced up from her flip phone to glare at the man's hand.

"Muds, I wanna listen to this." She spoke up, making the male's hand return to the steering wheel.

"Why?" He growled, rolling his eyes irritably "It's been playing for the last hour!"

"It's a nice song." The girl replied calmly, looking back down at her flip phone where she was playing _snake. _"Where are we going, Muds? We've been driving for at least 18 hours now and my legs hurt." she complained, kicking the back of his seat.

"Stop that." The messy haired male demanded, glancing at her through the rear view mirror. They had been driving for quite a while now, and to be honest he had no idea where he was heading. He had heard some stuff about a person dying out-of-nowhere this morning, and since they were already on the road he decided to check it out. It could possibly be the craftsmanship of a witch.

"We're almost there, Heather. Are you hungry?"

"Not really. I just wanna stretch my legs, They ache. Hey, Muds, can I see your phone? Mine's is almost out of battery." Heather asked, reaching towards the front seat with her hand outstretched. Recently, Muds had bought the two of them used phones so he could get in contact with Heather if she ever went missing. The only two numbers on his phone was Sam's number and Heather's number, while Heather only had Muds' number.

"Here." He replied, tossing his phone over his shoulder at the young girl.

"Thanks." The girl chirped, picking up the flip phone and searching through it for games to play.

While Heather was occupied, they had rolled into town. The town didn't look all that impressive to Muds, and he huffed at some of the buildings as they drove by. He rolled up into an alleyway and parked the car, yelling "Come on Heather! Let's go for a walk and get something to eat!" In which the girl replied with a grimace and a glare.

"I told you I'm not hungry and there is no reason to yell." Heather hissed, opening the car door and sliding out. She tucked her battery drained phone into her pocket and reluctantly handed Muds his phone as he came around the vehicle. The messy haired male tucked the phone into the back of her baggy jeans then guided the young girl out of the alleyway and around the corner.

Heather wasn't paying attention to where she was going, looking around at her surroundings as she walked beside Muds. The two of they were scanning over the town with careful eyes, looking for anything out of the ordinary or anything they should be wary of. They spotted a park across the street, bustling with kids and adults, and decided to go there.

In all honesty, that wasn't the best thing to do.

As soon as Heather had started playing on the playground, that was in the park, she almost got into a fight with some kid that was calling her stupid. She ended pushing the kid onto the ground, in which the mother came over and started scolding the young girl. Muds then showed up and immediately defended Heather, telling the lady she had no right to yell at his daughter.

The lady blew a fuse and went into a short rant, before carrying her child away. Then Muds decided to sit closer to the park so he could watch Heather better, but that drew concern from some of the mothers. I mean, who wants some mysterious guy sitting nearby the park while your kids are playing, right? So, some father came over to tell Muds to go away. Muds yelled at him, stating that he was watching his daughter.

The father only got angrier, and Muds decided it was time to leave. He had to **drag** Heather away, because she was in the middle of bickering with some kid who had thrown sand into her hair.

"I hate kids." Heather growled, folding her arms angrily when they had started walking on the sidewalk again.

"I hate people in general." Muds huffed, glancing back at the playground where the father was still staring at the two of them, a smug look of victory on his face. The embodiment held up his hand and flicked him off, then turned his back to him and continued walking.

They hadn't been walking for very long when some guy in a top hat jumped out from behind a building and almost gave Heather a heart attack. Muds looked like he wanted to kill the guy when he started handing out lime green fliers. The man looked pretty out of it, to tell the truth, and he seemed like he wanted to chuck himself off the nearest cliff. When he spoke, his voice was slurred and had an annoyed tone to it.

"Hello there." He grumbled, tipping his top hat "We are having a festival right here in town ,tonight, at 7:00. We will be having games, prizes, fun houses, mazes, and contests. The festival will be filled with plenty of activities for everyone to do. Just head down to 46 street and- HEY! Where are you going?!"

Before he had even finished talking, Muds had strode away, uninterested in the festival. Heather watched the embodiment walk a few paces away, before he turned to look back at the young girl with an impatient expression.

"Sorry." Heather apologized to the top hat man "I'm sure we'll be there later on."

Waving goodbye to the man, she ran to catch up with the messy haired male. Muds had already discarded te lime green flier into the nearest garbage can while Heather looked at the flier wit curiosity. Suddenly, her eyes lit up in excitement, a small smile appearing onto her lips.

"Hey, can we go to the festival?" She asked, looking up at the embodiment.

Muds huffed, pulling his lip back into a snarl as she said that. "Why would you want to go? It seems like a total waste of time."

"We've been driving around for a long time, Muds, come on! This could be fun. Besides, there's gonna be a psychic there!" She squealed the last part of the sentence, still smiling excitedly. The embodiment scoffed, unimpressed, but agreed to take her to the festival anyway. The poor girl hadn't done anything fun for a while now, so it could be some type of outing for her.

She could do some **real** kid stuff instead of learning about demon related thing

* * *

Muds was annoyed by everything instantly. The loud carny music, the crowds of people, the smells of popcorn and hotdogs, the squeals of children. It all was so overbearing and annoying since he had never went to a large event before. Not to mention that people tend to shove by you and not apologize. Although he wanted to turn around and push the person onto the ground, he promised himself not to get into any confrontation here, and, instead, gripped his hat, which he had bought earlier that day, angrily. Heather, on the other hand, was having a hell of a time. She had cotton candy in left hand, Her teddy bear in the other hand, and was gazing up at the bright lights with amazement. She didn't win any of the games she had played at the booths, but it didn't phase her one bit. She kept turning back to look at Muds, who plastered a fake smile on his face when she did that.

Yet when she turned back around his smile faded away

"Muds, Muds! Can we go there!" Heather shrilled, pointed to the a carousel. There were a bunch of kids on there, screaming with delight as the rode on the plastic horses. The embodiment gazed over to the carousel with a blank look, a frown on his face.

"Alright, come on." He said, guiding her over to the line that was waiting to get on the ride next. The young girl danced on her feet happily, the teddy bear swaying in her arms limply. The brown haired woman in front of him glanced back at them, a smile on her face as she watched the young girl dance.

"She your child?" The female asked Muds. The brown eyed male slowly nodded, his face still hard as stone. The woman nodded in response, a smile still tainting her lips "Shes very lively."

"I know." Muds sighed, which made her chuckle. Suddenly, something caught the edge of his vision and he looked away from the women, her next response going right through his ears as he spotted a man in a tuxedo weaving his way through the cluster of people. It was strange, the way he was dressed. Who dresses in a suit to go to the festival?

Also, there was a pit in his stomach telling him that there was definitely something _off_ about that man. He just seemed...weird. His skin was pale and sickly, like it was dead, and not to mention the man's dull eyes. It just sent a shiver down Muds spine, and he felt like he _knew_ the reason why the man put him on edge. He just couldn't figure out _why._

His observation of the man was cut short as he noticed that the lady in front of him was still trying to get him to respond to her.

"Huh. I'm sorry, what were you saying?" The embodiment asked, turning back to the female.

"I was asking if you lived around here. This neighborhood isn't very big and I'm certain that I would have seen you around before." She investigated, her blue eyes narrowing a little. Heather had stopped dancing now, and just gazed up at the lady with a slightly irritated face.

"No. I'm just passing through the neighborhood." Muds spoke, his brown eyes leveling her blue eyes.

"Awww, that's too bad. The neighborhood is really nice." The lady whined. At that, the woman had now crossed the line from being tolerable to being irritating, and Muds only fixed her with a glare. This didn't discourage her, and she continued to pester the messy haired male.

"No ,seriously, there hasn't been a murder here for quite some time. Its a nice place. Or, _or,_ you could just stay a couple more days and ,you know, get to know some of the people around here. They're really friendly and I wouldn't mind showing you around. Actually, some of my friends are going out to a bar tomorrow." The woman rambled. Muds knew where she was heading with her offer, and sent her an annoyed look.

She still didn't catch on, and Heather had to shift away when the woman tried to get a bit closer to Muds. Finally, the duo got to the carousel and Muds paid for Heather to get on, since they wouldn't allow any adults onto the ride. The embodiment also ended up having to hold onto the teddy bear since they wouldn't allow teddy bears or toys onto the ride either.

As the young girl climbed onto one of the plastic horses, Muds looked down at his teddy bear form with an uninterested gaze. The stuffed dog had cotton candy clumped in it's artificial fur, which made the embodiment frown. He hadn't actually gotten a close look at the teddy bear before, even with all his years spent with Heather, and the bear looked pretty unimpressive.

"So, how about my offer?" The woman was still nagging him, but he had blocked her out.

"No." He growled, glancing at her then turning back to the Heather, who was waving in his direction with a cheesy smile on her face as the ride began to move. The lady beside him just wasn't catching on, and she kept shouldering him and trying to convince him of her offer. Eventually, Muds got fed up with the lady and yelled at her to _fuck off._

This, of course, drew attention to the two of them. The lady practically fell down into tears, which surprised Muds, and another lady came over to comfort her. The embodiment looked at the two women with an annoyed expression, before turning back to the carousel.

Next thing he knew, He was being shoved down onto the ground by a passing male bystander.

"Hey, buddy, there was no need to hit her!" The bystander growled, his green eyes narrowing angrily.

"What are you talking about!?" Muds shouted, enraged "I didn't lay a hand on her!"

"Oh yeah, explain why she's bleeding then." The bystande growled again, advancing on Muds to grab the collar of his shirt and haul him onto his feet. At the mention of the woman getting hurt, Muds glanced over at the brown haired female. It was true, there was blood leaking from her busted lip like she had been punched in the face.

"What the-" Muds started, but he was being pushed backwards by the bystander male before he could finish.

"Hey! Get off of me!" Muds hissed, pushing the male away angrily "I told you that I didn't hit her!"

Out of the corner of his eye he could see some security guards advancing towards them, and Muds growled, having enough of this mess, and pushed the man off of him. The teddy bear slipped from his grasp when he did that, and it landed on the ground next to the fallen bystander as Muds turned and began running away. All he had to do was just lose the security guards and he could head back to the carousel and grab Heather.

Weaving through the groups of people, he laughed when he heard one of the security guards run into a popcorn machine and rounded the corner to lose the other security guard. It was harder to lose the second one, but he was able to get rid of them when he jumped over the counter's of one of the prize booths and ducked down.

"Yo, dude, you can't be back here." The booth man told him, in which Muds replied with an annoyed huff. Checking the area to make sure the security men were gone, the messy haired male jumped from behind the booth only to turn the corner and end up right in front of the security guards.

"Shit." He hissed, reeling backwards.

* * *

When Heather had gotten off the ride, she was full of giggles and smiles. She looked around to find Muds and tell him how excited she had been on the ride, but she found that there was no sight of the messy haired embodiment. The only thing she saw was the lady, that had been messing with Muds earlier, on the ground with a bloody lip. Another lady was hovering over the woman, and there was a 9 year old boy crouching in front of her. Heather hesitantly made her way over to the woman, her eyes settling on the blood on her face.

"Hey, have you seen my..." Heather paused, her nose scrunching up "...father."

The word didn't seem to fit right in her mouth, and Heather found herself disliking referring Muds as her father. It just seemed wrong to call him something that he wasn't.

The woman on the ground turned to her, and her blue eyes twinkled in something that Heather couldn't quite understand.

"You, young girl, you were with that man, weren't you?" She asked, carefully picking herself off the ground. At this, the other woman, who had been comforting the first lady, took off and left Heather to deal with the mother and the son by herself.

"Um, yes?" Heather replied, squinting at them doubtfully.

"Come on. I can show you where he went to."

Before Heather could deny her request, the woman reached out and gripped onto her forearm then proceeded to drag her away from the carousel. The young girl was left screaming and protesting, trying to push her arm away frantically. The 9 year old boy walked beside them, his face blank from all emotion as he glanced over at Heather. That's when Heather noticed that the boy flickering. His whole figure was fading in and out of visibility, which made the young girl frown. The boy couldn't be a spirit, Heather would've _known_ if the boy was a spirit. **What the hell?**

Maybe she was losing her powers...

When the woman's grip on her arm tightened, Heather remembered where she was and began trying to get herself out of the woman's grip, again. Her grip was too tight, and Heather found that there was no other way to get away, so the young girl leaned forward and _bit_ the woman's hand.

"You little brat!" The woman hissed, retracting her hand.

Heather immediately took off running when she was free, and disappeared around the corner of one of the booths, trying to get as far as she could from the woman. Unfortunately, the woman recovered from the bite quickly, and went trampling after the young girl. Heather skidded around corners and ducked through people, trying to lose the woman. The crowds of people started to narrow out and Heather found herself in a part of the festival that was quieter than the rest.

Looking for a hiding spot, a purple tent grabbed her attention and she dived into it, scrambling. She found herself face-to-face with a man, a table, and a glass sphere that was sitting on the table. Heather paused, looking at the man curiously. He had black hair and a 5 o' clock shadow stretching across his face, a cigarette burning in his mouth as he gazed at her with bored eyes. He was dressed in purple robes, and had a weird looking hat on his head. A tall purple cone hat, that drooped slightly and was covered in silver stars. He looked stupid, but Heather had no time to think about that. Frantically looking beside herself, she heard the man cough as he stamp out the cigarette "You want your future told or what?"

Heather looked from the man back to the entrance of the tent then back at the man. "You're a psychic?" she wondered.

"Er...yeah, whatever kid." The man huffed, placing a hand on the table and looking at Heather with the same bored expression.

"Oh! Cool! Can you...Can you read my future?" Heather asked, still cautiously looking behind herself in fear that the woman might find her. The man snorted, as if she had said something stupid, and indignantly stated "What the heck do you think i'm gonna do, kid?"

Heather nodded, a small smile flashing on her face as the man sat down and put his hands on the glass sphere in front of him. He picked the sphere up and shook it, causing the sphere to flood with glitter and smoke, which intrigued Heather. The man's brow furrowed as he set the sphere back on the table, and his eyes glanced from Heather to the glass sphere. "I see...I see..." The man said, his hands hovering above the sphere while he leaned in.

The young girl began to lean in too, wondering what the man saw in the sphere.

"I see...I see...I see." The man continued.

"What?!" Heather barked, impatient.

"I see a bright future ahead of you, kid. If you throw the right punches and land the right shots, you have nothing to worry about in life. Just, be careful of who you trust and what sins you commit, but otherwise than that you're smooth sailing." The man said, leaning away from the sphere with his bored expression returning to his face. He reached a hand forward to pat her shoulder, but Heather just moved her shoulder out of the way. She was confused.

How had that man saw her future in the glass sphere? That was impossible. Was there something that he could see and she couldn't see. Was this object some type of magic? Was the man magic? Maybe if she looked hard enough she could see her own future. Leaning forward, Heather furrowed her brows as she gazed into the sphere, but the smoke and glitter had died down now and settled on the bottom of the sphere.

"How do you know?" Heather asked, still gazing at the sphere.

"What?"

"How do you know what my future will be?" Heather asked, glancing up at the man with a serious face. The man frowned slightly, then a smirk cracked on his face.

"What?" Heather huffed.

"Kid, are you serious?" The man sighed, the smile on his face contradicting the blank look in his eyes.

"What? You said you were a psychic!" Heather barked, her brows furrowing up in confusion.

The man sighed, holding his hands up in front of his face with a smirk still etched on his features. He looked like he was holding in a laugh, but still gazed at her with the same boring brown eyes. "I wouldn't lie to you, kid. Now, you gonna sit there and stare at the orb or do you have better things to do?"

Heather stared at the man silently, brows still bunched. Her gaze flickered from the orb then back at the man. Her mouth opened, but she was yanked away from the table before she could speak. Dragged out of the tent, Heather screamed and kicked and attempted to claw out the attacker's eyes.

"Who, Heather, it's me!" A familiar face announced, helping the girl get her balance.

"Oh!" Heather spluttered, staring at the embodiment with surprised eyes. "Muds!" she squealed, wrapping her arms around his torso happily. The embodiment looked down at her, surprised, but place a hand on her back and patted.

"Hey! Hey!" Shouting from the purple tent made the rejoined duo watch as the black haired man stumbled out of the tent and glared at Muds. "You can't do that! Who do you think you are!? Going around snatching little girls." he shouted, pointing at the embodiment and gesturing towards Heather as they separated.

"She's my daughter, for you information." Muds hissed at him, putting a possessive hand onto Heather's shoulder.

"Oh." The psychic trailed, glancing at Heather curiously. The young girl nodded at him, and the psychic nodded back.

"Sorry. I thought yo-" The man's beginning of an apology was interrupted as the psychic started gagging and choking. He crumpled over and fell onto his knees, gasping now. Heather freaked out and reached out to touch the man, but Muds grabbed her arm before she touched the crumpled man. The embodiment was staring at someone behind the dying man, but Heather couldn't see what he was looking at. It practically looked like he was just staring at the air behind him.

Then she noticed how the air had suddenly became colder, and she sensed a strange feeling in the air. Heather's face scrunched up. _What was that sensation?_ It was cold, it was..._deathly. _Heather stared up at Muds, who looked terrified. Unbeknownst to Heather, Muds could see a formally dressed man standing over the dead man's body. The man had fallen onto the ground, deathly still as his starred purple hat flopped off his head.

The suited man snapped his head up at them, staring at Heather before turning his attention to Muds.

"Alright. Time to go, Heather." Muds gulped, nudging the girl away.

"What about the psychic man!" Heather protested.

"He...He probably just passed out, Heather. We'll go get someone that can help, but we're leaving**_ now!_**" Muds growled, nudging the girl harder. When the young girl still refused to move, and continued to stare at the dead man, Muds dragged her away. Heather still protested, whining about something wasn't right, but the embodiment ignored her and continued walking.

He was trying his best not to turn around and look at the _reaper_ that was following them through the festival. Heather was still protesting when they walked out of the festival and down the street, where Muds paused to let the girl calm down.

"What the heck, Muds! That man just fell over and you didn't even help him!" Heather screeched at him. The embodiment wasn't even looking at the young girl, his attention was appointed to the entrance of the festival where the suited man continued to sit and watch the two of them.

"Muds!" Heather screeched, shoving him.

"What?!" The embodiment hissed, snapping his head down to glare at her. "I don't even know that man in there, why should I care about him!?"

"Because we could have helped him!" Heather shouted, throwing her hands up angrily.

"I don't care about him!" Muds shouted back, his shoulders bunching up angrily. His wings were beginning to materialize themselves behind his back, causing white feathers to float onto the ground around him. "I care about you!" he growled, wings spreading out to their full length. Heather didn't back down, her stubborn nature taking over as she held his gaze.

"Your wings do not scare me." The young girl pointed out.

"I wasn't planning on them to scare you-" Muds admitted, turning his head back to the entrance of the festival. The reaper was no longer in sight, which allowed the embodiment to calm down a little and his wings drooped slightly. "-You were the one to come up with the idea of them, after all."

Heather huffed in acknowledgement.

The embodiment nodded slowly, letting his white wings fold up and disintegrate into thin air. "I don't care about that man, Heather, so neither should you." Muds stated, turning on his heel and marching away. The young girl didn't want to follow him.

What she wanted to do was turn around and go back into the festival to see if she could still possibly help the man, but she didn't do that either. Instead, she just stood there and watched the embodiment continue to walk down the sidewalk. She knew that it was dangerous for a little girl to be out in the open at night, but she was too stubborn to care.

"Heather!" Muds barked her name, slowing down and peeking over his shoulder to gaze at her.

The young girl stared back, still rooted to her spot. Reluctantly, she began to move towards the embodiment. She didn't want to make the embodiment even angrier, and she knew he could easily toss her over his shoulder and continue walking.

Once Muds had saw that she was following after him, he turned and began walking again, listening to the sound of her small footsteps rushing to catch up with him.

* * *

The early morning light that was streaming through the silver Nissan Versa window washed onto the embodiment's face. He had been up the whole night, thinking. His brown eyes were trained on the ceiling of the car as he leaned back in his seat. A sigh escaped him. Heather would be waking up soon and she would be hungry, but he couldn't shake the guilty feeling in his stomach.

Did he have the right to take Heather from her hometown and force her to travel with him?

The young girl hadn't complained about him, but the few days they spent in North Dakota, she had been really quiet. It could have been possible shock from seeing him kill those vampires, but she had seen him kill plenty of things before. The embodiment chose to ignore her odd behavior at the time. However, now it was bugging him. Why had she been so quiet? Had she been rethinking her decision to go with him? Well, if she hadn't been rethinking then, she was definitely rethinking now. After last night, she probably thought he was heartless for not helping that man.

Maybe, he might have helped the man if the reaper wasn't there, but Muds had dealt with reapers before and he wasn't sure how it would react to Heather. The young girl had practically escaped death, as far as he knew, when she went to the emergency hospital at six years old and Muds had his "_run in"_ with death as well.

Softly, the embodiment shook his head. Enough thinking. Thinking never got him anywhere and only caused more trouble for him. Starting up the car, he glanced back at Heather, who was curled up in the backseat with a makeshift blanket pulled over her. She had fallen asleep in the car last night and Muds decided not to waste his money on renting a motel room. So, he parked the car in a parking lot and that's where the two spent the night. In the silver Nissan.

Muds drove out of the parking lot and down the street, searching for a fast food place he could quickly pick up something for Heather to eat. He eventually found a place and drove up into the driveway, ordering some orange juice and two breakfast sandwiches. When driving to the window to retrieve the food, Muds noticed something in the corner of his vision. Snapping his head towards the figure, he instantly froze with fear.

Standing a few yards away from the car, stood a reaper. The same reaper from last night, actually. It was just standing there, watching the car, and Muds felt fear bubbling up inside him.

What was it doing? Was it coming to get them? Why? They weren't about to die...were they.

"Sir?" A voice made the messy haired male turn his attention back to the window, where a young female was holding a paper bag and a medium sized cup full of orange juice. "That'll be 7.98, sir." she said.

"Right." Muds agreed, digging around in his pocket to fish out a 10 dollar bill and give it to her. Muds took the food and placed it in the empty passenger seat beside him, then took the change from the female and drove away. He took a moment to glance at the spot to see if the reaper was still there, but the creature was gone.

"Muds?" Heather's voice cracked as she slowly began to pull herself out of her fetal sleeping position and into a sitting posture. "Where are we?"

"We're still in Hayward." Muds replied, pulling back up into the parking lot "I bought you breakfast."

Heather grumbled a thanks, reaching forward in the passenger seat and grabbing the paper bag and the orange juice. After Muds had parked the car at the far end of the parking lot, he reached into the glove compartment to pull out a small black notebook decorated with white swirls. It looked pretty uninteresting to anyone else, but Muds took pride into it.

He had bought it five months ago, and had been using it to record some of the important events that had happened between him and Heather so far. On the front page, in bold letters, in wrote **This book belongs to Muds Cutlass.  
Do not enter. **

On the next page was the first entry.

_Entry 1, April 30th, 2008_

_I don't see any reason to introduce myself because this is my journal and mine alone. No one elses. I've recently decided to leave this place that Heather calls home. It is nothing,but a beacon for demons who are looking for her...or me. I cannot risk her safety, so I will take her away. She is all that I have. I will not lose her. I will begin working for my driving license soon. I am skeptical about leaving Heather alone, but she said she would be fine._

Muds huffed at the short entry, knowing that he had nothing to write at the time he got the journal. Skipping past a few entries, his eyes gazed over another one.

_Entry 7, May 10th, 2008 _

_Heather has been quiet. Quieter than usual. I fear for her. I have tried to confront her on her behavior yesterday night, but she bluff that she doesn't know what I mean. I know something is wrong with her. I just, know it! It's just a feeling I have in my gut that's telling me that's something is bothering her. Earlier today she was drawing something in her notebook and I asked if I was able to see. She only glanced up at me, and then moved away so I couldn't see her drawing. What did I do? _

Ouch. He remembered how much that had stung him. Heather, the girl who knew him her whole life, had rejected him. What had been so important about those drawings anyway? Outwardly Muds scoffed at the thought of something being more important in her life than **him. **Hmpf.

_Entry 14th, May 20th, 2008_

_I came home today with the house smelling of sulfur. The whole house. At first I was terrified, but when I saw Heather sitting on the couch, calmly, I got angry. Did she not smell that? Not to mention the dining table was flipped over and there was claw marks on the walls. I expected her to look afraid, but she looked happy. And...I don't know, that made my angry. I didn't explode on her though, I walked away and then proceeded to punch a hole in the hallway wall. I had thought that she was possessed or something, but after dripping some holy water into her drink and giving it to her, I found out it was still Heather. She didn't talk about what happened, so I just left it. I was too angry to care anymore. I just made sure to have her lock the door until I got home, and put salt on all the entryways.  
_

That was still a mystery to him. Who had been in the house while he was gone? They obviously couldn't be so bad if Heather was fine. Hesitantly, the embodiment glanced back at his younger companion as she scarfed down one of her breakfast sandwiches. Turning back to his notebook, he opened to the page of where he had left off from the vampire entry. The last sentence was saying stuff about the phones he bought. Underneath the end of that entry, he wrote:

_Entry 58, September 5th, 2008_

He pressed his pen down to begin writing when he saw something in the corner of his vision. Instinctively snapping his head over to the passenger seat window, a feeling of horror washed over the embodiment.

Death in a suit.

It was standing right next to the car, eyes trained on Muds as the embodiment shivered in fear. It smirked at him, as if sensing his fear, and reached up to knock on the window of the car.

Knock Knock Knock~

Heather glanced up at the sound of knocking, searching the windows to see who was knocking, but she didn't find anyone. Instead, she saw Muds shivering in...fear. Wait, was he actually scared? Heather paused, looking at Muds with a concerned look and glancing between him and the window he was staring at ever so intently. Heather opened her mouth to speak, when she was raked with a familiar sensation. The feeling of cold and death.

Glaring at the window, Heather tried to focus on pinning down where the sensation was coming from. Before she could pin point it, Muds had turned infuriated. Rolling down the passenger window and grabbing the nearest thing, his pen, he chucked it out the window while yelling "GO AWAY! WE NEVER DID ANYTHING!"

Heather stared at him as if he had went crazy.

The embodiment didn't turn to look at her, but kept his eyes trained on the open window. Eventually, the embodiment relaxed and leaned back in his seat.

"Muds?" Heather asked, leaning forward to grab his attention.

The messy haired man jumped. He actually jumped. Like, jumped as if he was scared. It perplexed Heather because she had never seen him act in a way like this before. He was always either angry, protective, annoyed or serious. He was never scared.

"What did you see?" Heather asked, cocking her head to the side quizzically.

Muds didn't reply to her immediately. No, he kept flickering his gaze over to the window while he rolled it up. Then he turned to Heather and, instead of answering, asked "You didn't see him?"

"Who?"

"The reaper!" Muds exclaimed.

Heather's brows furrowed. He sounded crazy. "The what?" She asked.

The embodiment paused, his panicked gaze still resting on Heather before he started to calm down. He let out a deep sigh, his body composure no longer as panicky as it had been before. "That's right." He said to himself, turning around to brace his hands onto the steering wheel "You don't know what those are."

The embodiment looked calmer now, though his shoulders were still tensing up from worry. He started the car up and began to pull out the parking lot, while explaining to Heather exactly what a reaper was. "You've heard of the grim reaper before, right? Well, a reaper is technically like the grim reaper. They have the power to take away someone's life if they wanted to."

"How do you kill it?" Heather asked.

"What!? You...you can't kill a reaper!" Muds blurted out, giving the girl a crazy stare through the rear view mirror. "Well, I've never heard of any way to kill one."

"So, there might be a way to kill one?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, maybe." Muds muttered. After he said that, the conversation sort of died away and left the vehicle in silence. They were currently on the high way out of town when Heather suddenly realized something which sent her into a frantic search around the backseat of the car.

"What are you looking for, Heather?" The embodiment asked.

"Where's the teddy bear!?"

"_**WHA**_-...oh shit."

* * *

Turns out the duo didn't leave town that day. They had to drive back to where the festival was and ask if they could go inside and get something they had forgotten. However, they were told that they would have to wait until that night to go inside and get their stuff, which almost caused Muds to get into a fight with the person, but Heather managed to calm him down by agreeing that they'll just go get it later.

"You're not going tonight." Muds told her when they went to the park to pass the time.

"What!? Why not?" Heather protested angrily.

"Too dangerous. The reaper could be around." He counteracted.

"Why would he want to go after me?" Heather pointed out, her brown eyes narrowed in an accusing like way. The messy haired man didn't reply at first, he kept his gaze straight and stared over at a couple that was across the park on another bench. The female was busy cuddling into the male's chest while a stroller sat beside them, where a baby was fussing. Giving the male a kiss on his cheek, the female departed from the male and moved to attend to the fussing infant. She rocked it and cradled it, giving the baby butterfly kisses and tickling it until it wasn't fussy anymore and it was giggling. Heather followed his gaze and watched the couple cautiously. Looking between the couple and the embodiment, she noticed that his hand was curling into a fist and some of the veins were protruding from his arm as he clenched his fist.

"Muds?"

"You're not going." He rasped, tearing his gaze from the couple.

",but-"

"End of discussion, Heather. You. Are. **Not.** Going." Muds growled, meeting the younger female's scowl with a glare.

"Whatever."

However, when night had rolled around and Muds had left Heather in the parked car in the middle of a parking lot, the young girl went to the festival anyway. She had to dodge a lot of shady crowds of people that were standing around sidewalks, but the festival came into sight and she sprinted the rest of the way there. Only then did she realized how hard of a task of finding the teddy bear might actually be.

It could be anywhere. Literally, anywhere. It could have been picked up yesterday and taken home by some spoiled little brat.

"I don't see why Muds didn't just do his little wispy thing to find where the teddy bear is." Heather growled, sauntering into the festival and beginning her search.

Meanwhile, Muds was on his own little search for the teddy bear. He had stopped by multiple booths to look at the prizes that were hung up, but he was eventually told to move on unless he had any tickets to buy the prizes or if he won a game. The embodiment was having a _hell_ of a time trying to locate the stuffed animal, and this would just be so much easier if he actually had the _location_ of where the teddy bear was. Then he could just flash to where it was, nab it, and get out of town.

"Get out of the way!" A gruff demand made Muds turn to a group of high school jockeys. They were coming his way, and the lead jockey was demanding him to make space for him and his group. The embodiment only glared, side-stepping out of the way before the jockey had a chance to push him out of their walking path. Grumbling to himself, Muds turned to continue searching when he heard the sounds of choking. Spinning back around, he saw the group of jockey's were now staring down at their leader, who had fell onto his knees.

Even though it was hidden to everyone else, Muds saw the reaper.

It had a stoic look on it's face while it took away the boys life and watched him collapse onto the ground. The group of jockeys were now freaking out, and calling for help, but Muds ignored them. His attention was focused on the reaper that was beginning to walk away.

Silently, the brown headed embodiment slipped past the group of worrying jockey and followed the reaper who had disappeared around the corner of one of the prize booths. He barely got a glimpse of the black suit before the reaper vanished into thin air. Grumbling to himself, the embodiment spun around to continue what he was doing when he found himself face-to-face with a very familiar, annoying, face.

"Hiya! You were that one guy I saw yesterday, right?" the familiar face of the brown haired woman with bright blue eyes. She had a smile plastered on her face, per usual, and all signs of injury from yesterday was gone. The embodiment scowled at her, then shouldered past.

"Listen, lady, I don't have time for you right now." Muds replied, annoyed. The last thing he needed was some flirtatious lady trailing behind him.

"Oh. Yes you do." She growled, grabbing onto his arm. The embodiment stared at her in shock as she suddenly slung him against the side of the prize booth.

"It's been a while, _William_, miss me?" The lady cooed, a smirk flashing on her lips at the surprise on his face.

The embodiment deadpanned, he had absolutely no idea who this lady was. "I seriously have no idea who you are." Muds growled, pushing at the lady's shoulders.

"Of course you wouldn't recognize me. I've changed over the past seven hundred years." She snickered, blue eyes flashing.

"seven hundred years...wha?...I. Clara!" Muds stuttering changed into an accusing tone, brown eyes narrowing "That means yesterday...you did that on purpose and made it looked like I hit you! You friggin' witch!"

"Now, Now." Clara chuckled, her amused face only enraging the embodiment even more. "Don't you wanna know why I'm here, _William,_ and not in the next town over trying to keep off of your radar?"

"Not really, bu-"

"I'm breaking seals, William."

Muds paused, his face blanking out as he stared into the blue eyes of the witch in front of him. "What!?" He growled, lurching forward, but the brown haired woman simply pushed him against the prize booth again, pinning him down. "You can't do that! You know what will happen!"

"I know. That's why I'm doing it, William. Oh, by the way, lovely little girl you have. Heather is gonna grow up to be something special, you know what I mean, William."

"Shut your damn mouth and leave her out of this! Don't you dare think of hurting her either or I will rip your head off your shoulders!"

"Calm down, sweetie."

* * *

"Here teddy bear. Here teddy bear. Where are you?" Heather cooed, crouched down as she lifted the table cloth on one of the snack tables, and peered underneath it. "Where could you be?" She mumbled to herself. The young girl was pulled out of her thoughts as a hand was placed onto her shoulder. Nearly leaping out of her skin, the dark skinned female whipped around to come face to face with another woman. Actually, the woman looked elderly.

Her hair was almost white, and it was short. Crows feet was beginning to appear on the edges of her eyes. The one thing that stuck out to Heather was that she was wearing a weird looking cross necklace. Honestly, it didn't even look like the normal necklaces with crosses on them, but Heather decided not to ask about it.

"Honey, where are your parents?" The lady asked gently, her voice easing Heather's nerves. The lady's voice reminded her of the grandparents she had seen on television. The one's that always cooked a lot of food for their grandchildren and gave out presents whenever they came to visit their relatives.

"Um." Heather gawked "Um, I'm...l-looking for them. I, um, lost my...father."

The word still felt wrong to her, but she wasn't about to tell the woman that he was really some embodiment or something.

"Oh dear, are you hungry?" She ventured, stepping back to give Heather some space. The young female was almost quick to turn down her offer, but the grumble of her stomach reminded her that she actually was very hungry.

"Um...yes?" She said timidly.

"Alright, sweetie. Stay here." The woman said, turning to the man that was running the snack table. The women ordered a hotdog and a donut, which she gave to Heather. The young pre-teen ate the food quickly, thanking the women.

"Should we go find your parents?" The lady asked.

"I'm actually looking for...um...a...a teddy bear." Heather admitted, meeting the elderly woman's green eyes cautiously.

"A...teddy bear? Well, sweetie, there's teddy bears everywhere." The lady told Heather "Hey, what about you play one of the games and try and win one."

"Play...a game, but I'm only looking for one specific teddy bear." Heather said. The woman seemed stubborn though, and guiding the protesting Heather to the nearest game booth, which was a dart balloon game, she paid for Heather to play the game.

",but I really should be going." Heather muttered, picking up one of the five darts hesitantly. The elderly woman ignored her, and Heather sighed ,defeated, as she gripped the dart and aimed it at one of the colorful water balloons pinned onto the board. Tossing it, the dart missed the balloon by a couple of centimeters and landed on the bare side of the board.

"What!?" Heather said in surprise, grabbing another dart. This time, when she threw it, she made her target and it pierced a neon green water balloon. When the balloon burst and the water spilled out, Heather smiled victoriously and grabbed another dart. She wasn't as lucky the next few tries because she missed the three darts she had left.

"Sorry kid, no prize." The booth man told her calmly, grabbing the darts off the board and going to reset the board up.

Heather slumped angrily, sticking her tongue out at the booth man. The woman beside her chuckled, pulling out another dollar bill and sliding it towards the man so Heather could get another five tries. The young hunter glanced at the elderly woman in caution, wondering why she was so nice. No one had ever shown her kindness besides Muds in the past few months.

"Alright. You get another five darts." The booth man said, placing the darts in front of the juvenile female.

Heather cheered, grabbing the first dart and chucking it forward. This time around, Heather was luckier and she managed to get three out of the five darts onto the board. She applauded happily when the booth man said she was allowed to pick one of the smaller stuffed bears.

She picked a black cat that was hanging up.

Eyes sparkling with excitement, Heather held the cat out towards the elderly woman with a light smile. "Here." Heather said "You have it."

"Oh, but I can't. You w-"

"I insist." Heather nodded, and watched as the woman plucked the cat from the youthful girl's hands. A large smile winded along the woman's face and she peered down at Heather gleefully, pulling the stuffed bear towards her body. "Thank you, young girl. You are very kind."

"You are too." Heather replied.

It was odd.

Heather had a happier relationship with this woman she had just met than the teddy bear embodiment she spent most of her life with. The woman suddenly seemed distracted from Heather as she turned to look at the space beside the two of them. The curly haired girl would've asked what was wrong, but she was suddenly being pulled away from the elderly woman as a firm hand clamped around her arm.

"I thought I told you to stay in the car!" Muds hissed quietly, dragging the girl away from her new friend.

"I went to look for my teddy bear. Where were you doing?" Heather defended.

"None of your business and you were doing such a great job looking for the bear by conversing with Betty White! Why can't you see how close to the reaper you were! It was right beside you!" Muds whispered harshly, still tugging at Heather's arm. The juvenile was struggling in the messy haired man's grip, and Muds was just about to pick her up and sling her over his shoulder when he paused, registering his own words.

"Right... beside... you." Muds mouthed, whipping around to glare at the elderly woman, who was staring after the two of them, and the reaper, who stood by her side.

"Wait here!" Muds told Heather, letting go of his adopted daughter's arm and whisking around to march over to the woman and the reaper.

Heather couldn't tell what he was saying to the elderly woman, but she looked quite surprised by his words and she began backing away. Muds noticed her motions and shot forwards to stop her, but she already turned around and began running towards a large group of people. The embodiment glanced over at Heather hesitantly before turning in the direction of the woman and following her through the clustering group of people.

Heather started to follow after them, but she noticed something in the arms of a passing civilian and stopped short.

_My teddy bear! _

It was a chubby kid that had her teddy bear. His hands were wrapped around the bear protectively as he sipped his drink. His dad wasn't far off, walking to the left side of the chubby kid. She could have never known if the teddy bear was actually her's from looks, but she felt the bond of Muds soul pulsing through the teddy bear through waves. It was pretty much impossible to ignore the pulsing of the bond.

Heather's eyes narrowed and she trotted after the chubby kid, prepared to take back what belonged to her.

* * *

In truth, Muds wanted to scream right now. There were just too many people around him and they were all pushing and shoving and talking. He gritted his teeth, trying to keep track of the elderly woman that was trying to escape him. She probably didn't realize that she had been followed, so Muds was trying not to yell out in frustration and ruin his position.

Eventually the crowd thinned out and Muds saw the woman slip in between one of the booths.

"Hey!" Muds barked when he rounded the booth's corner and saw the woman hobbling away. She jolted, glancing behind herself at Muds then panicking and trying to run again, but the embodiment caught her before she could get away.

"You are one stupid Betty White." Muds hissed, yanking the woman back and reaching out to grab the necklace she had on. The woman's hand flashed up to the necklace and gripped it protectively, her eyes wide with horror. "I didn't do anything wrong!" she protested.

"In case you don't know, killing people is illegal. It's also a sin, lady."

"I had a reason!" She continued to protest "Those people had it coming to them!"

"I don't want to hear your excuses." Muds growled, still trying to get his grip onto the necklace that the woman was protecting.

"Listen! Listen to me!" She yelled, yanking away from Muds grasp "That little girl of yours-"

"What about her."

"-don't you love her?"

"I don't see how this has to do with the situation." Muds grumbled, advancing towards the elderly woman.

"Listen to me! What if she committed suicide!" She yelled at him. By now, The embodiment had stopped advancing. When the words _suicide_ slipped from her mouth it sent a chill down the embodiment's spine and forced him to stop all his movements. He found himself not even wanting to think what would happen if Heather took her own life, so he fixed the woman with a stern look.

"That's what happened to my daughter, okay, okay? Those people that died, they deserved to die. They're actions and words costed my daughter her life. The jock, he publicly humiliated her. He tore down her self-esteem! The fake psychic, he filled her false hope and lies. The blonde boy that died, he broke my daughters heart! Don't you understand!? These people deserve this fate! What if that were to happen to your daughter!?"

She was panting now, her ragged breaths stirring the air as her grip on the necklace loosened.

Muds was glaring at the woman, his posture loosening up as he went over what she said. He would probably do something similar to her actions if Heather ever committed suicide, but it would be a lot more bloodier. He couldn't take the thought of living in a life without her. He couldn't go back to the way it was before. However, he had to focus on the situation at hand.

"I'm sorry." Muds apologized, launching forward to knock her hands away and snatch the necklace from around her neck. Lifting it high over his head, it threw it to the ground and let it shatter at his feet. Even though he had said it, the embodiment felt no type of remorse for the woman and was actually pretty glad to shatter the necklace. He was sure the woman had no idea what her actions had caused, but that didn't mean she wasn't gonna pay for them.

"No. What have you done!" The lady gasped, crumpling to her feet. She was grieving over the shattered remains of the necklace when terror lightened in her eyes and she gazed towards the end of the booth's passageway. Muds looked in the direction as well, surprised to see the reaper standing there with a frown on his face. With narrowed eyes, it disappeared then reappeared in front of the woman, placing a hand onto her head. Within seconds, the woman fell over, dead.

Muds frowned at the woman, then glanced at the reaper who was giving him a strange look.

"What?" Muds asked, eyebrows furrowing.

The reaper's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak, but instead just gestured to Muds body, confusion distorted on his face. The embodiment frowned, taking a few steps backwards.

Shrugging, the reaper shook his head and mumbled something along the lines of 'I don't understand' before vanishing into thin air.

"Reapers are jerks." Muds mumbled to himself, leaving to corpse of the woman behind him to go and find Heather.

When he went back to where the snack table was he found no sight of the juvenile and was pretty close to blowing a fuse when she saw her coming barreling towards him. "Muds! We've gotta go,now!" Heather screeched, her arms closed around a familiar looking teddy bear. She streaked past him and the embodiment looked over his shoulder to see a crying chubby kid sitting on the ground, security guards, and a man who was pointing in the direction Heather ran.

* * *

By the time they got to the parking lot, both of them were tired out. However, Muds started to fume when he saw that his car wasn't in the parking lot anymore. He searched frantically, and Heather caught site of a towing truck rounding the corner with the silver Nissan being tugged along after it.

"My car!" The embodiment groaned, racing after the towing truck. Heather tried to keep up with the messy haired male as he ran, but ended up falling behind. So, Muds hauled her over his shoulder and continued running so that he could catch the towing truck.

Heather started giggling like crazy, but the towing man was obviously ignoring the two of them and probably hoping that they would get tired and quit the chase, but Muds kept running. He followed the truck to the storage facility and placed Heather down, not even breaking a sweat. Heather seemed amazed, but the embodiment thought nothing of it when he went inside to try and get his car bailed.

Sadly, that didn't quite go as he planned and that left the embodiment to climb _over_ the tall fence surrounding the storage area. He still had the keys to the car, so he easily slid into the Nissan and told Heather to step away from the entrance of the gate before slamming right into the fence and breaking the car out.

"Hurry, hurry, get into the passenger seat." Muds demanded, opening the door for Heather so she could hop in. The people in the building had noticed what he done and the security guards were coming out to stop him, but the embodiment hit the gas and sped away. The whole incident had Heather in a fit of giggles, and a large smile was on her face.

"What's so funny?" Muds asked.

"This reminds me of when I was younger and I running after the ice cream truck, remember? That one time I fell and scraped my elbow and you yelled at the driver of the ice cream truck until he gave my free ice cream." The young girl giggled.

"Yeah, I remember." Muds huffed, cracking a smile

* * *

**The Witness episode should be coming up soon and you'll probably learn a thing or two about Muds.**

**There was one more scene I was gonna add where Muds and Clara was conversing over what Clara had done and the seals and stuff, but I decided to add that in the next chapter because this chapter is already way longer than what I usually write.**

**I'm trying to figure out if I want Heather to be put into school whenever they go to a town or what because Muds sure can't home school her, she wouldn't learn anything. Blech. Well she probably would learn some stuff, but Muds doesn't have the patience for teaching. I think I'll just have her signed up for school or whateves. **

**I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE THIS MANY WORDS. WHAT?!**

**Also, jesus christ, school is starting soon which means inactivity tut tut tut tut**

**Hazel out**


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